Star x Star
by TheMangoYeti
Summary: When Hoshi is transported to the world of her favorite manga and anime, fiction turns out to be a different universe where her mother is from! Follow your favorite half-blood as she goes on an epic quest with her friends to find her mother, help her mother complete her mission, and go back home.
1. A x New x Name?

I absolutely love HxH, it's one of my fav animes EVER! Hisoka is a sexy mofo (an evil mofo too) and the characters are so cool in their own way :3

So I decided to write a fanfic! Anyway, I really liked the idea of a gender bender, but this time it has a twist :D not all characters I write are gender benders, don't worry (Nao, Akemi, etc)

I came from a 'normal world', I guess you can say.

We had doo-dads and gadgets aplenty (Little Mermaid), we had technology to blast us to the moon and back, and I could instantly talk to anyone over the internet. We had cars that would take us somewhere in 20 minutes that would cost us 2 hours to walk, and we could be in a different country in less than a day, instead of months by ship.

Yet, of all these advances in our society, I still couldn't go anywhere, or do anything with my life.

Now, you may be thinking 'what the heck is a 11 year old girl, wondering about her life for? She's young, she has the chance to make decisions, blah blah blah.

My family was poor in the country of Japan. Not poor poor, where we live in boxes and beg for tips, but we don't go out to eat, shop for clothes, have television or whatever, and didn't have health insurance.

It was my dad, 10 year old brother, and I. I was currently a gymnast at the local gymnastics gym, and the coaches one day believed I would be in the Olympics. They say that 'no one can do this, or that, as you can. You're so young! Japan can have a great kid one day for their gymnastics! The female Michael Phelps of Japan Gymnastics!' But I could care less about that.

I attend school on scholarship because of this gym, which is a sports school. My brother was to get in for American football next year, and he was excited to attend. His name was Iwao, which is ironic, because he was the scrawniest kid I know, but also the fastest.

In my free time outside of gymnastics, I read manga and watch anime. My absolute favorite is the Hunter x Hunter series, I practically memorized the story, watched both the 1999 and 2011 series, and fangirled over the characters. Who couldn't love Gon's bubbly personality?

Anyway, back to why I was acting all emo, saying I couldn't do anything with my life.

To put it simply, Iwao is dead. I know what you're thinking, introducing a character in the first chapter that's already dead? How depressing!

Well, deaths suck, but Iwao would've been pissed if I mourned him longer than a week. His attention was like a goldfish, always moving on after 30 seconds. He would want me to move on, which I did. Besides, he isn't dead...

I remember when we were younger, when I was 5 and my brother 3, my mom would read us bed time stories. One of my favorite stories, is when she told us about a magical place, where anything can happen. Where monsters existed, and the brave rose above to fight them. They were heroes. I wanted to be a hero.

The next day after the story, she was gone. Only leaving behind a pocket watch for my brother, and a necklace for me. Of course, I was only 5 and didn't understand why my mommy left, and my dad said she never truly belonged to him, but he belonged to her.

After my mom left, my dad was depressed for a while, but got over it to take care of us. Now, my dad gave up after Iwao died a few months ago.

I sigh, why was I even thinking about these depressing things? It's my birthday in 12 minutes, 12:12 AM on 12/12/04.

I sit cross legged in my cramped bedroom, and I hear police sirens in a distance. A knocking is heard at my door.

"Come in dad," I say, and my dad comes into my room.

I look nothing like my dad, except for my long torso and long legs, which is unusual for a gymnast. I guess I inherited some of his brown hair... He has brown eyes and hair, with stubble lining his face. His nose is slightly crooked, most likely from being knocked into the nose.

"Darling, I must tell you something," he says, and I nod. "Remember, all those years ago, when I said your mom never belonged to me, but I belonged to her?"

"You make it sound like you're a dog," I say, and he laughs slightly. "I was talking about my heart, it belonged to her, but only some of hers belonged to me. She wasn't... of this world, I guess you can say. I don't have much time to explain, so I wrote it in a book for you, since you love to read," he says, passing me a backpack.

"Quickly, there's not much time, change into some clothes you'd wear for working out, or... an adventure," he says, turning his back to me.

I quickly put on running shorts, with a baggy work out tee-shirt. I throw my long, dull brown hair into a pony tail. It fades to a light pink at the ends, but it was all natural. I remember my mom had all pink hair, so I just told everyone it was highlights. I strap on tennis shoes, and put on ace bandages with a sports bra on top, to restrict bouncing and to also fit into the tight t-shirt. Like I said, we couldn't afford shopping for clothes, so I couldn't break clothes that were too small for me around the chest, so I wrapped myself. Besides, I was smaller than two lemons, so it doesn't matter too much anyways.

"I'm done," I say, and my father turns around. "Happy birthday, this will be the last one we celebrate for a while," he says, and I hug him. "What are you talking about dad?"

"Your mom was a hero, from the last story she told you," my dad begins, "She had to go back to complete a mission, that she thought she finished long ago, before she met me. She said she'd come back once she completed her mission. She also wanted her children to see the magical world she came from, and gave me each 2 magical items to give to you on your 12th birthday."

He passes me a sapphire amulet, which is one of the prettiest colors ever in my eyes. It seems to reflect 1,000 different shades of blue, and it's surrounded by a silver circle, with five curvy lines to make it look like a star. I put it on, and he gives me a pocket watch that's golden, and I put that in my backpack.

"Your brother was buried and burned with his gifts," my dad says quietly. "The combination of both of your gifts would act as a portal to take you to the world. I can't go, because I don't have the blood of that universe, but your brother and you are half breeds, technically speaking, so you can both go. Oh! And there's something from me," he says, pulling out a purple and blue friendship bracelet, with a star charm on it.

"I technically got the charm from your mom, but I made the bracelet," he says, and I hug him. "I love it," I whisper, backing away and putting it on my left hand.

"I put food, water, and other necessities in there... Apparently... uh, girls in that universe don't have... monthly cycles," he says, face turning red. I quickly nod, "No need to exert yourself too much Dad, but what will you do when I'm gone?"

"I need money, so once you leave I'm going to join the military, they provide bunking and food," he says, looking at the floor.

"Hey, don't be ashamed, you need money to survive, and once I'm gone it'll be easier to provide," I say, and he nods.

"3 minutes left before the clock strikes midnight," he says, and hugs me. "Here, this is one of your mom's scarves, it's apparently from the world she's from."

I take the scarf from him, it's a dark blue, with white and silver through it that seem to glow. It looks like the night sky...

I break away from the hug, and put the pocket watch in my backpack. In the backpack is food, water, female necessities, clothing, a first aid kit, and a guide book to the history of the world there.

"What kind of hero was my mom?" I ask, and my dad smiles.

"She was called a Hunter, and she was one of the elite. Spirea Woodruff, that's her name there. 3-star rank she was, and that's the best, well, that's what she told me," My dad says, thinking. I put the backpack around my shoulders, and tighten my scarf tighter around my neck.

"It's 12:11, I'll miss you dad, and I love you," I say, giving him a hug as tears run down my eyes. Even if he wasn't the best provider, I still loved him.

"I love you too, my little star," he says, tears running down his face. My name, Hoshi, translates to star, and my dad loved calling me little star. Now that I think about it, my necklace was shaped like a star...

"I promise dad, I'll find mom and help her complete her mission, and we'll come back," I say, closing my eyes tightly as tears leak out. My golden star necklace started glowing, and before I knew it my dad's arms were no longer wrapped tightly around me in a loving embrace, and I felt wind in my hair. I open my eyes, and I seem to jet through space, yet I can somehow breath...

I burst through a cluster of stars, and looked behind me. I seem to be outside the milky way! I continue to move faster, into another galaxy, and landed on a big planet, similar to Earth in colors, but the landscapes looked totally different.

I fell out of the sky quickly, and than softly landed in an alley way in a street. It looked similar to the Hunter x Hunter anime, but I brushed it off... But my mom was called a Hunter by my dad...

Gah! Did I somehow land up in the universe that I fangirled over completely?! This is totally insane, yet cool! And since I'm a half-blood, like Percy Jackson, I kinda belong here!

I walk out of the alley way, and see an older woman with Goofy-like teeth, surrounded by people in white robes. This seems like the 2011 anime, darn, the sushi scene from 1999 was cool, but at least Hisoka is a hottie. I step out, and I turn around and see a tall, lanky cranky looking business-suited man, a girly looking guy in blue night gowns, and a short boy with giant spiky hair with green leprachaun clothes...

Oh wait, that's the main party.

I sneak back into the alleyway, as they walk past without noticing me. I should stay out of the way for now, to not mess with the canon, but than again...

I take the scarf, and wrap it around my face and head to act as a mask, and I step out.

"Hello!" I say, walking towards them. "Mind if I join your party? I want to go to the Hunter test too," I say, gee, I sounded kinda suspicious.

"Sure!" Gon says, and Leorio shakes his head. "We can only see your grey eyes," Leorio says, "why can't we see your face?"

AGH! Why can't a suspicious person in a mask join a party?

"Because I have a lot of acne on my face right now, and it's really gross looking, I don't want to be embarrassed," I say, putting my head in my hands.

"Ahhh, young boy, puberty is shameful, but it turns you big, handsome, smart and strong, like me!" Leorio says, striking a pose.

"You can join our party if you'd like," Kurapika says, "I'm Kurapika, and this goon is Leorio."  
"I AM NOT A GOON!" Leorio says, turning red and stomping his feet.

"Please don't talk in caps, it's giving me a head ache," Kurapika says, and Leorio crosses his arms.

"I'm, I'm," I say, trying to think of a name. The names here were way different than Japanese names, and I usually don't hear them outside the anime, except for Hisoka.

"I'm Eridanus," I say, thinking of a star I studied, "But you guys can call me Eri,'"

"Welcome Eri!" Gon says, "How old are you?"

"I just turned 12," I say, "Like, 5 minutes ago."

"Happy Birthday Eri-kun!" Gon says, and I feel my eyebrow twitch under my mask. Well, I guess if I'm 12 years old and a 'guy', my voice is still kinda high... and I'm wearing a sports bra and ace bandages... Damn it! They think I'm a guy!

We continued walking, until we stood infront of the old woman.

"You boys are heading for the tree on the hill, right?" The old woman said, and we nod.

"To reach the tree, you boys must pass through this town, and me. Answer the riddle correctly, and you can go. You have five seconds to answer. Give the wrong answer and you are disqualified."

"I happen to be a quiz EXPERT!" Leorio says, flexing, and than his eyes widen. "One question, five seconds?! AGHHHH!"

"Leorio, we talked earlier about talking in caps," Kurapika mutters. Seeing these guys up close, I can't believe this isn't a dream!  
"I'm not good at quizzes," Gon admits, scratching his head.

"I'll go first," a voice says behind us, and we turn and see a big nosed man. "Oh great," I mutter, "it's the drag squidward."

"Who are you?" Leorio asked, "He followed us from the port, I let him follow us because he wasn't bothering anyone," Gon says, and Leorio sweat drops. "This is a competition Gon..." Leorio sighs.

"I just happened to overhear your conversation, it's not a crime," Squidward guy says, and Kurapika nods. "If we let him go first, we'll know what kind of question to expect."

"I'm ready," Squidward guy says, and the old woman nods.

"Now. here is your question a group of evil villains have kidnapped your mother and your lover. You can only save one of them to save, who do you chose? The one you do not chose is saved, while the other dies." "Hey what kind of quiz is this?!"Leorio asks outraged.

"Mother," Squidward says, "you can replace your lover, but not your lover."

"Correct, you may pass," the old woman says, and I roll my eyes. Bye bye squidward.

"Seriously looks like the trick is telling the old lady whatever she wants to hear," Squidward says, running behind the old lady to where the fake path lay.

"We're just supposed to say what we think she wants to hear what's up with that?!" Leorio says, and I shrug and zone out, until we start going up the correct path. They figured it out on their own, and I shouldn't have interfered with the canon.

We walk up the dark pathway for a while, and end up at the cabin.

"Yo! I gotta take a leak!" Said Leorio, and Kurapika nods. "Hello?" I ask, knocking on the cabin door.

No reply.

Leorio opens the door, and it slowly creaks open. "We're coming in."

We gasp, well, I fake gasp, as we see a tattered scene before us. The giant Pikachu thing stood before us, with glowing red eyes and holding a purple haired woman, while a man was laying on the floor.

"It's a magical beast!" I say, and my party nods, "The transforming magical beast, the Kiriko. They can take human form," Kurapika confirms.

"Release the woman!" I say, "Or else, I'll, uh, get you!" I say, stepping forward. "They're really intelligent too," Kurapika says, and I roll my eyes.

The beast jumps through the window. "I'll attend to the man, everyone else go!" Leorio says, and we all nod.

We jump through the window, and follow the beast. I look closely, and see one jumping closely after the other, so there's actually two. And, one is slightly fatter.

Gon attempts to capture the Kiriko, but it just retaliates. "Catch me if you can!" it says, running off.

"Wow! They can speak!" Gon says, and I nod.

"Since they can become humans, they're capable of human speech too," I say simply, before increasing my speed.

"I'll try to cut them off!" I say, running ahead of them. "You round them from the back side and we attack at once!"

"Ok!" They say at the same time, and I speed up even more, closing in on one of the Kiriko.

"I got you now!" I say, jumping at it. I grab each arm with a hand, and I flip over and tackle the Kiriko, which is bigger than me.

"Nice try, but try harder, I am much bigger than you!" It says, before standing up and leaping upwards.

"Wahhhhhh!" I say, as he jumps extremely high, "Woah, you're fur is totally soft, what conditioner do you use?" I mutter, clutching on for dear life with one hand, and wrapping my legs as much as I can around the back. "Grab my hand, purple haired girl!" I say, and she obliges.

Gon suddenly sneak attacks from above, and wacks the Kiriko with his fishing rod, making him drop the purple haired girl, pulling me down too. I quickly pull her into bridal style position, and once I hit the ground I tuck and roll. I gently set her down, and adjust my scarf.

"Are you okay?" Kurapika says, holding her hand and inspecting for injuries, when he notices her single ladies tattoo. "Please take me to my husband!" She cries, and he looks her in the eye. "Those tattoos..." He says, and Leorio wanders up.

"Your husband is fine, his wounds weren't that deep," He says, and the girl nods. I lean up against a tree. "Liar," I say, looking at the fake, knock off Oreo.

"What?" He asks, and I look him in the eye. "Leorio wouldn't leave a patient alone in a cabin after being injured, he would look after them," I say, "his ego would be seriously damaged if his patient got sick under his care while he was gone, too."

Kurapika wacks the fake Leorio with his sweet nunchuks. "Hehehe," Fake Leorio says, clutching his face. "My disguise is perfect, though. How did you know?" He directs his question toward Kurapika.

"Easy, Leorio wouldn't have left, and if he did he would be talking in caps with excitement and braggin," Kurapika says. "Where's the other Kirito?" I ask, and the fake Leorio morphs into a Kirito.

"The other? It's just me," he says, and I shake my head. "There's 4 of you, the husband and wife, and the one with Gon and you," I explain simply. "Kirito can morph into humans, and Kirito are typically kind creatures who bear no grudges against humans. You wouldn't willy nilly kidnap a woman and injure a man just because," I say, and the Kirito laughs.

"You would do well as a Hunter," it says, and stars sparkled in my eyes. "Really? Thanks!" I say, sticking my hand out. The Kirito grins a toothy smile, and takes it's paw and shakes my hand. Kurapika just looks dumbstruck.

"Well, let's go back to the cabin than," says the purple haired girl, standing up. "Nice catch there," she says, looking at me and smiling. "Thanks!"

We walked back to the cabin, and met Gon there. The two in Kirito form were laughing about how Gon and I could tell them apart, and how it's been years since anyone could tell them apart.

"Kurapika, you can go on because you recognized the tattoos of a unwed woman, a vague hint, to determine we weren't spouses. Leorio, you dressed my injuries more efficiently than doctors, and assured me that my wife was fine. Gon, you had superhuman observation to determine we were two different people. And..."

"Eri," I say.

"Eri, you could tell that we were all Kirito, and took immediate call to action, and successfully rescued me," says the purple haired girl.

"You all pass!" The all say, and we cheer. We fist bump each other, smiling. "We will now take you to the exam site," they say, and we grab the ankles of the Kirito.

"Is this an OK position for my hands to be in? I don't want your hands to be uncomfortable," I say, and the Kirito I'm on barks a laugh. "No, don't worry Eri."

"Isn't it great that we all passed?" Gon asks, "Yep!" I say, and I relax slightly. Better relax before I have to run that damn marathon with Satotz for the first trial...

We flew for a bit, and arrived at the city. Some lady gave my group free food because she thought Gon was cute, and it tasted really good.

We arrived at the food shack, and we said the code word to get us into the backroom elevator, "Thank you, Kirito-san," I say, turning towards the man who guided us there. "It was no problem! If you retake the test next year, I'd be happy to guide you all again," he says, winking to us before leaving, closing the door.

"I can't wait for that steak dinner!" Gon says, sitting at the table, and I sit next to him. "Gon, that was the code word to get us in," I say, and he pouts.

Leorio and Kurapika start arguing about Hunters, and I slam my hands onto the table, getting their attention.

"Stop bickering, we all do things for our own goals and values, and every gem sparkles differently in the light viewed from," I say, "We are going to be taking an extremely hard test together, and I'd love to walk out as Hunters with all of you because you're all my friends, and I want to walk out as friends, hand-in-hand, not as bickering allies!"

I sigh, "Sorry," Leorio says, looking down. "Sorry," Kurapika says, looking away. "You boys better get along now," I say, and they nod. God, I feel like a nagging mom.

The elevator shudders to a stop, and we exit to the underground tunnel, and I repress a squeal of joy, everything and everyone look so cool. Even the secondary characters who die at first! All eyes turn towards us.

"Everyone's a master in their own way," Leorio mutters, throwing his suitcase over his shoulder, attempting to look cool.  
"Excuse me," Gon says, but everyone turns away.

"Gon, don't worry, everyone is probably nervous for the test," I say, patting his shoulder. "I am sure we'll make friendships that last lifetimes too!" I say, and he smiles.

"Yeah, Eri, you're right!" He says, and smiles. AWWW! Gon is such a cutie.

A little green jelly bean guy walks up to us. "Here is your numbers," he says, passing me number 405 and 404 to Gon.

"Thank you!" I say, smiling, but I just realize that they can't see me smile because of the mask... Oh well, it's the effort that counts.

"I haven't seen you guys around before," Tonpa says, jumping down from the rafters. I really wish I could just ignore him, but that'd affect the storyline.

"You must be an exam veteran," I say, and he nods. "Yup," he says, "I'm Tonpa, and this is my 35th time."

"That's not something to brag about," Leorio nods, and Kurapika nods. I'm glad they made up...

Tonpa is blabbering, but I'm looking as someone knocks into Hisoka. That man's arms disintegrate into red clovers, and it's creepy but pretty.

"Oh look, his arms have turned into flowers. No smoke and mirrors here," Hisoka says, raising his arms. Gon looks really scared. "Take care," Hisoka calls out, "you should apologize if you bump into someone."

"He is dangerous, I recommend avoiding him," Tonpa says, and my party nods. But I don't, I want to see the magic show myself. I don't really have fears anymore...

"Why don't we celebrate this new friendship with a drink?" Tonpa says, passing us all drinks, and I raise my hand. "Tonpa-sama, I have a question," I say innocently.

"Yes?" He asks, and I look him in the eyes.

"Is the reason you're a veteran is that you're a rookie crusher?"

Tonpa's mouth opens slightly, and his eyes widen. "W-why do you say that?" He asks, and I hold up the drink.

"Laxatives aren't things you typically give to new friends, are they?" I ask, cracking open the drink, and moving my scarf down to expose my mouth. I swig back the orange juice, gargle it, and spit it at the feet of Tonpa.

"T-that's strange," He says, and I move my scarf up over my mouth again.

"Orange juice is known to be somewhat of a natural laxative, and mixed together with an actual laxative it's a toilet fest," I say, "it doesn't help if you're being offered it to by a rookie crusher." A few years ago, my brother was really constipated, so we gave him lots of prune juice, and when we ran out of that we gave him orange juice to help.

"I-I gotta go," Tonpa says, running away. "Bye bye Tonpa!" I say, waving.

"Wow..." Kurapika says, and Leorio nods. "Thank you Eri," Gon says, "that would be bad to have to go to the bathroom before the test!"

I just nod, and I adjust my scarf again to make sure it fits perfectly. I look at the corner, and see Tonpa now talking to the fat, toad looking nerd.

The stone door rises, and Satotz steps out. He really has no mouth...

"Come on," I whisper to Gon, pulling him up front so we can see better and get a faster start. I adjust my backpack straps, and clasp the front together.

"The entry period for the Hunter exams has ended," Satotz says, "The exam will now begin, please follow me."

He turns around and starts walking, and we all follow. Gon starts talking about his life on Whale Island, and I listen.

Satotz starts running, and we all jog behind. About 40 kilometers in, I see the fat toad run ahead, thinking he neared the end. I get ready to snatch his computer...

I hear wheels nearing us, and I see the one and only Killua gliding on his skateboard. "How old are you?" He asks, "Twelve," Gon and I answer.

"Why are you dressed as a ghost," Killua says, and I sweatdrop. "I have lots of acne on my face right now," I say, and he nods.

"I'm Killua," he says, "I'm Gon!" "Eri," I say, with a nod.

"I guess I'll run," Killua says, jumping off his skateboard and picks it up, before he continues to run.

"We are all the same age," Killua says, and Gon smiles."Cool!" He says, and I nod.

I look at the nerd, and I notice he's slowing down and his glasses fell off, so his vision is blurry. I take his computer, and he doesn't notice.

"Why did you take his computer, Eri-kun?" Gon says, looking at me.

"Watch him, he's going to fall in a moment, and his computer would have fallen out of his grasp and broken," I say, and we hear a thud as the fat nerd falls.

"Wow, can you see the future Eri? Tell mine!" Killua says, and I think for a moment.

"Killua, you are... going to become a giant lobster and go to Mars!" I say, and they laugh.

"What's Mars," Gon and Killua say, and I sweat drop. "I'm just good at predictions," I say, and Killua shrugs.

Just than, Leorio takes off his shirt, and bounds ahead of us. "Leorio, there's children here, no need to strip!" I say, and I hear a few chuckles around us.

"I...don't care...how stupid I look, I just want to... become a Hunter... and pass this exam!" He says, running dramatically. Some follow suit, doing the Naruto run or running dramatically.

We see the stair case, and I sigh in relief. I did stairs all the time to build up leg muscles, this will be a walk in the park. They're also long and flat, so I can easily hop up them at two at a time.

"Race you to the top?" Killua says, and we nod. We all go up as fast as possible, and I get a lead and am soon bounding up the stairs, side by side with Satotz.

"Hello Satotz-sama, I'm Eri," I say, waving at him. He doesn't look at me, and continues looking forward.

"Hello Eri, do you have any questions for me?" He asks, and I think for a moment. "Do you have a mouth?" I ask, and it's his turn to think now.

"I believe my mouth is very small and close to my mustache, so it looks like my mustache is my mouth," he says.

"But what happens if you shave your mustache? What does your mouth look like?"

"..." Satotz seemed deep in thought, turns out ever since he was a baby he had a mustache, he's never attempted to shave it or anything.

"I...don't know," he says, thinking about it.

I look behind me, and I see Killua and Gon. I lower my scarf and stick my tongue out at them, "Guess who's gonna buy me dinner?" I say, taunting them playfully.

I see Kurapika and Leorio not that far behind them, talking in an almost normal conversation, except it seems like Leorio is talking in all caps again. This is the scene where they make up, right?

I turn back around, and stay in pace with Satotz, and I see the exit. I stay in pace, and get there first.

Killua and Gon quickly close behind, and I laugh.

"You guys owe me dinner," I say, sitting on the grass, drinking from my waterbottle.

"Kugoi! Can I look at your backpack?" Gon says, and I nod as they look in my backpack.

"Eri," Killua says.

"Yeah?"

"What are these?" He says, holding up a bunch of pads in his fist.

"B-baka! Put those back! I say, snatching them from his hand.

"Are those secret pouches of money?" Asks Gon, eyes aglow.

"No, they are special stickers that are very expensive, and you guys can't have any," I say, taking my bag back.

"Than what about these?" Gon asks, holding up a tampon out of the plastic cover.

"Woah! Is that candy?" Killua says, and my entire face turns red. "Stoppppp!" I say, snatching the female products back.

"No more touching my bag!" I say, and I stuff the products back into my bag.

Leorio and Kurapika come up, and the metal door behind them closes.

"Welcome to the Numere Wastelands," Satotz says, "These wetland creatures will use every trick in the book to fool their prey."

"Stay close to me, unless you wish to be deceived," Satotz continues, turning around.

"Don't let them fool you!" A gruff voice says, and everyone turns around and sees a blonde, scruffy looking man.

"He's lying! He's lying to you all! He's an impostor!" He continues, and everyone gasps. I look at Satotz, and he has this look on his face that screams boredom and 'really'

"I'm the real examiner, and this..." he drags a weird looking ape/Satotz around the corner, "is a man faced ape."

"They have long and weak limbs, and trick humans into the wetlands!"

People start murmuring, but I start laughing, and everyone's eyes turn towards me.

"Y-you doubt our examiner?" I say, wiping my eye as a tear comes out from laughing. "Look at the body the man dragged, than look at Satotz. Satotz doesn't have fanged teeth and a large tongue that protrudes from his mouth, and he certainly isn't a hairy beast with a tail. Also, he said 'long and weak' limbs, do you think Satotz would run about 80 km without breaking a sweat?"

"What do you know? You're just a kid," someone from the crowd says, and people start agreeing. I roll my eyes, and Hisoka does his weird card thing, and than everyone believes him. Only because he's a scary adult clown who can kill a person with 'is this your card' question...

I receive pitiful glances from my friends, but I ignore them. If people doubted me as just a kid, what if they found out I was a kid AND a girl? No one would take me seriously, and people would be sexist... I decided.

I'll go through the Hunter exam as a boy.

Thanks for reading my first chapter! Don't forget to favorite and leave a review :D


	2. Have x a x Snickers

Last time we left off, Eri and the party were about to take a walk through Swindler's Swamp.

"Stay close!" Satotz says, before briskly turning around and entering the fog.

"Come on!" Gon says, before practically sprinting towards the front, and Killua and I follow.

We all run in silence, focused on Satotz, and we hear a bird squaking, a crow to be specific.

We slow down a bit, and we start following the people, who are following Satotz to say. I turn around, and see Hisoka behind us with a creepy grin on his face. Damn Ronald McDonald copycat, something was about to happen...

"The atmosphere is kinda tense, let's move up!" I say cheerfully, before increasing my speed. "Ok!" Gon says, and Killua nods. He must have felt it too.

"Come on Kurapika and Leorio! Let's move up to see the examiner!" Gon says, calling back to Leorio and Kurapika.

"Baka! If I could I would already be there!" Leorio calls back.

"Come on," Killua says, and we nod and increase speed. I quickly pray for Leorio's and Kurapika's safety, who knows how much my presence has affected the storyline.

We increase our speed, and fog surrounds us and I can barely see 5 feet ahead of me. "I hear people screaming around us, I hope they're OK," Gon says, and I nod. "The test is dangerous, I hope less than 50 lose their lives," I say, "Besides, at least the people who failed the tunnel run are still alive and can try next year."

"True," Killua says, and we stop for a moment. "Something feels off," I say, and the ground below us collapses.

"Ahh!" We say, and hold eachother for dear life. We end up in the stupid frog's mouth.

"Ugh, this is ridiculous," I say, "I don't want to die in a frog!"  
"I got this," Killua says, taking out the juice can from Tonpa and pouring it on the frog's tongue.

"Cover your eyes and mouths!" I say, closing my eyes tightly as a mixture of saliva and vomit rushes up and ejects us both out.

"Ewww! Frog barf!" Gon says, flopping on the ground. "The frog must have thought we tasted gross, along with Tonpa's juice."

"We can still catch up with the examiner," Killua says, and Gon sniffs the air and a determined look appears on his face.

"I gotta go, follow the examiner Killua and Eri, I'll meet up with you." Gon says, standing up, but I grab his hand.

"I'm coming with you," I say, and he nods, and we start running.

We come upon a clearing in a field, and see Leorio facing Hisoka with a stick, and I mentally face palm. Just because your shirt is off, doesn't mean you're macho.

Leorio rushes forward with the stick, and attempts to hit Hisoka, but the stick passes through an afterimage of Hisoka, as Hisoka sneaks around and makes a grab for Leorio.

I look to my right, and I see Gon thrust (Hisoka *shwing* insert on thrust) his fishing rod, and hits Hisoka in the face. Not a bop or *boop* like that, like a punch with the red ball.

Leorio does this crab walk away, and looks up like the bewildered Spongebob caveman meme. I quickly run away from Gon, and circle around the clearing to the opposite side.

Hisoka looks up at where the ball came up from, and smirks. "Not bad, little boy."

Gon's face scrunches, and looks even more determined than ever. "Is that a fishing pole? How fascinating."

Hisoka slowly starts walking towards Gon, and I determine it's my time to make a move. I don't have a 'weapon weapon', but I can take the pile of rocks that conveniently are next to me and throw them. Even better, I can incorporate gymnastics into my attack...

I quickly pick up the smallest rocks, putting them in between fingers, pressing my fingers together tightly. I probably have 8-10 in each hand, but it will distract Hisoka enough to look away from Gon.

I look up to see what they're doing now, Leorio is standing up now. "Your... fight, is with me," Leorio mutters, running towards Hisoka, ready to swing.

Hisoka does an uppercut, and Leorio anime-falls through the air. Smirking victoriously, Hisoka stands there. Gon cries out a war cry, and attempts to swing his fishing pole at Hisoka, but it goes through a double. Gon looks at a Hisoka, standing far away, but fails to notice the real Hisoka appears behind him.

"Came to save your friend?" He says, and Gon jumps back. My time to shine is here!

"I CHIME IN WITH A," I yell-scream-sing, and everyone's eyes turn towards me. I start doing cartwheels towards them, one after the other.

"HAVEN'T YOU PEOPLE EVER HEARD OF?" I do a half circle around Hisoka, his eyes on me as Gon sneaks away.

"CLOSING A GOD DAMN DOOR?" I'm in the starting position for a cartwheel, and when I lean forward I launch a handful of rocks towards Hisoka, and he gets pelted (SUPER SOAKED).

"How, amusing~" he says, chuckling and looks back to where Gon was. I cartwheel away into the bushes, and climb a tree, adjusting my scarf. Phase two will commence shortly.

While Hisoka was distracted, Gon swings his rod again, and it ALMOST hits Hisoka, except he reaches out and slams Gon into the tree I'm in, by the neck.

"How wonderful," Hisoka says, smiling.

"I really do love that look," his face contorts into an even more twisted version of that smile.

I jump down from the tree and land on Hisoka, making him drop Gon.

"Blocking off my friend's wind pipe is a big no-no," I say, and step off Hisoka.

"Wow Eri! That was really cool!" Gon says, "Thanks!"

Hisoka stands up, creepy smile on face. "You both pass, and so does your friend," he says, nodding to Leorio, who is still laying on the ground.

Our eyes widen, mine mostly because how quickly Hisoka went from deadly to friendly. "Both of you, grow up and become fine hunters."

Hisoka's walkie-talkie gets a call from Illumi/Gittarackur, and he leaves, picking up Leorio on his way out.

"Let's go," I say, and Gon nods. Kurapika comes, and we all run to where the Phase 2 starts. I zone out, and think about how rad Hisoka is, even though he acts as if he had 20 McCreep meals...

"Hey Killua!" Gon says, and I look up. Huh. We arrived.

"Hey Gon, Eri, Kurapika, I thought we lost you," Killua says, and I nod.

"I tracked Leorio's cologne," Gon said, and Killua's eyes twitch.

I lean over to Killua by his ear. "Gon is secretly a dog," I say, and Killua nods.

"By the way Eri! You need to teach me that cart wheel trick, with the rocks," Gon says smiling. "It was so cool! And what song were you singing?"

"Oh, yeah I'll teach you how to do multiple cart wheels later, I just put rocks between my fingers and released them at a certain point," I say shrugging. "And the song I was singing was a song I like by a band I like, and that part of the song was really cool and attention grabbing."

Killua's eyes twitched. "You're both so weird."

"Thanks!" I say, smiling. But he can't see me smile with the scarf in the way.

"Excellent work everyone, phase two will now commence. I'll be on my way," Satotz says, and briskly walks into the forest.

"By Satotz-sama!" I say, waving at where he was walking. "Thanks for everything!"

The giant doors creak open, and we all look inside.

"Everyone who passed the first exam, please step inside!" The girl with blue hair says, sitting there. I look around and see the cooking tables, is this what Master Chef was?

We all walk in, and I smile. This is so cool!

"Welcome everyone, I am Menchi, and the other examiner is Buhara."

"We are the second phase examiners!" They say, and I smile.

A large groan is heard, and everyone mutters.

"You must be hungry," Menchi says, and Buhara nods. "Very."

"Then Phase 2 will involve cooking!" Menchi says, standing up.

"Cool!" I say, voice rising among the silent crowd, and Menchi smiles widely. "Very cool, in fact!" She says, hands on hips. I got her in a good mood, so hopefully we won't have to do the spider-egg drop, who knows with the extra weight of me if it will snap too early...

"What? Cooking?" The fat sumo wrestler says, who I didn't even bothering to remember his name. "This is a Hunter Exam!"

"Co-rrect," Menchi says, "you guys are here to make a plate that will satisfy our tastes."

"Let's get started!" I say, enthusiastically to prevent the fat sumo guy from talking. "What plate should we d-"

"Why do we have to cook?" A gruff voice calls from the crowd, and I roll my eyes. Everyone here was being idiotic.

"Because we are Gourmet Hunters."

"Huh?" Fattie says, before laughing. "G-gourmet hunters? Man, what a letdown."

A bunch of men start laughing, and my eyebrow twitches.

"Hey, 255!" I say, and he looks over at where my voice came from. "What do you want?"

"Well, I wouldn't be making fun of the Gourmet Hunters, at least they passed the Hunter's Exam and got their license, instead of coming back year after year!"

255's fat, sweaty face turned red, and everyone "Oooooooo~'d" him, before laughing at him.

"Gourmet hunters are stupid and weak though," he says, "they can't handle being real hunters, and can only handle making food. Ayy, munchies, get in the kitchen and make me a sammich!" He calls out to Menchi with a sexist comment, and everyone laughs, ignoring the comment I just made. I face palm, and Menchi looks pissed. The only people who don't laugh is my party, and strangely, Hisoka. But, Hisoka has that whole 'Haha so funny I'll break your face in' aura.

"You need to incorporate pork into the dish," Buhara says, "you can use any species of pig you want though."

"Pork?" Someone says, and Buhara nods. "You must use the cooking facilities here to make this pork dish. Good luck!"

"And, you may only pass if we both find it delicious, and we will evaluate on more than taste," Menchi says, crossing her arms.

"The exam begins," Buhara bangs his gong stomach, "NOW!"

We all run towards the exit, and Gon puts his hand on my shoulder. "Let's hunt as a group, it's easier," he says, and I nod.

We walk around the forest aimlessly, than we slide down a hill into a valley of giant pigs, chewing on bones. One of these pigs would be enough to feed me and my dad for weeks... Truth be told, on the weekends I usually didn't have anything to eat, since the school provides free food, so I eat in small portions at home, and large at school.

"They're... carnivores?" Kurapika asks, and a pig snaps through a bone, and starts chasing us. We already did so much damn running! I want a break already.

"I'm gonna bop them on the nose!" Gon says.

"Don't bop them on the nose!" I say, but Gon ignores me as he runs towards a pig kicks it on the nose, before he's sent flying back.

"The forehead is a weak spot for being shot with a gun," Killua says, "maybe it's a weak spot for the pigs?"

"I'll try," I say, and I look at a pig that's alone. Perfect. I take a running start, and I do a flip and vault off the ground 10 feet into the air with extra effort in my legs. It appears the gravity here is either 1/2 or 3/4 the gravity on Earth, which explains why I could run 80 km without extra strain and do giant leaps, such as Satotz.

I bend my left leg under my butt, and point my toes, landing on the pig's forehead with my right foot. Falling to the ground dead, I jump off the pig and pick it up. "The forehead works!" I say, before running back to the base, pig over my head.

Yeah, gravity is definitely weaker here.

I'm the first one back, and I prep my work station by washing the knives, my hands and my work station.

I decide to make pork enchiladas, and I look under the sink to see the exact ingredients I need. Must be magic...

I preheat the oven to 180C/350F, and pour the olive oil into a pan. I turn on the stove and heat that up on medium, and while waiting for it to boil I remove the meat of the pig, and cut off a hefty sized amount of meat, and I dice that into small cube strip thingies. Deciding the oil is hot enough, I throw in the bits of pork and let that sizzle. "I'm friggin' Guy Fieri here," I say, whispering to myself. I look up and see everyone else has arrived, and are currently rotating the pig on a spit. Gah, I hope I could have changed it to prevent doing the spider eggs, but we will probably still do it. I take the pan, and scrape the pork into a bowl, putting it aside.

I wash my hands again, and start making an enchilada verde sauce. The oven dings, letting me know it's ready to go, and I finish making the sauce. I measure 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce, and pour it into the bowl with the chicken, before adding corn, black beans, 1/2 cup of cheese, and mixing that all up. I spread 1 and 1/2 cups of verde enchilada sauce on the bottom of the pan evenly, before taking up the mixture I made and rolling it up into 8 tortilla shells.

"Hey, what are you making?" Gon asks from behind me, and I smile. "I'm making verde enchiladas," I say, and I hear him taking a big sniff.

"Woah! That smells really good!" He says, and I smile from under the mask again. "Thanks Gon!"

"Yeah," Killua says, turning around from his station in front of me. "I've never seen or heard of enchiladas before."  
"I'll make you guys some soon than," I say, "there's only 40 minutes left, now let me concentrate, not trying to be rude or anything."

"We understand! Good luck!" Gon says, and I nod.

I finish wrapping the enchiladas up, and I place them into the cooking pan, and put the finishing touches of 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce on top, and I slam that thing into the oven, leaving it to bake for 10 minutes. In that time, I clean up my work space and wash my hands. "I am the Mexican Ratatioulle," I whisper to myself, even though I'm not Hispanic, but I'm making Mexican food (A/N-the character has a random personality at times, so there's random comments too)

The oven dings, and I put on oven mitts, scatter some cheese across the top, before slamming that back into the oven for 13 minutes. I made this dish multiple times at home, since supplies for it were easy to come by, even though sometimes I may have substituted a stray dog for pork or chicken, but like I said, I didn't go shopping much. I took it out of the oven, and I let it cool for a few minutes.

"Wow! That's an enchilada?" Gon says, looking over at my dish. "Yup!" I say, "These are spicy ones though, and I heard the pig meat around here works well with anything, so..."

"Make me enchiladas later Eri," Killua says, "or I'll eat these ones."

"Okay okay!" I say, "Now shoo! Back to your station! 10 minutes left!"

I cut the enchilada platter in half, with four enchiladas on each side, and let it cool more. I take the remaining sauce and put it in a squeeze bottle that magically appeared in the lower pantry under my sink, and put the last cup of enchilada sauce in there. I squeeze out a cool, swirly design on each plate (basically a hypnosis spiral), and put four enchiladas on each plate. I throw on some more cheese, and look under the sink to see a bag of tortilla chips. Mmmm, those would look good on my plate. I wash my hands, before reaching in the bag and taking a handful, putting it on each plate.

"Times up! Let's start!" I put the remaining items left in their respectful places, and put the dirty dishes in the sink after washing them. I'd be lying if I said I didn't put some chips in my backpack though...

I sit down, bored. I watched as everyone got cock-blocked by Menchi, even if they had something that looked cute or tasted good, it was all the same thing.

"Number 405!" Menchi calls out, and I stand up, plates in hand, and I walk to where they are.

"Verde enchiladas," I say, passing them each a plate.

"... what are enchiladas," Menchi says, looking at me.

"Enchiladas... are...well," I say, trying to think of a description that won't question my origin.

"Enchiladas are rolled tortillas with a filling typically of meat and served with a chili sauce. Here, I made it with pork, and used a verde sauce, inside are corn, black olives, cheese, and pork."

Buhara holds up a circle sign, eating the enchilada whole. "..." Menchi takes a bite, and her eyes widen.

She eats all of it, and holds up a circle sign.

"Finally! Someone got the idea right, it was to make a pork dish, not a whole thing made out of pork!" She says, standing up.

"Send me the recipe later," she mutters to me, and I nod.

"Examination is over, and we have one winner. Number 405, Eri!"

"What, ridiculous? A kid, a rookie, wins?" The fat sumo guy yells out, smashing his table.

Everyone complained, and I just stood there, feeling really weird...

"You asked for a pork dish, and we delivered! We risked our lives-" fat guy begins, but Menchi shushes him.

"We asked for a pork dish we both found delicious, and none of the dishes, except Eri, were delicious to both of us! Not even remotely! You all did the same thing, and made it robotically. You can tell when a dish has passion and flavor, not just thrown on the spit without even being properly handled! I saw you 83, you picked your nose while cooking." Everyone looks towards number 83, and he quickly looks at the floor.

"Pork dishes are all the same, who even cares," Hanzo mutters, and Menchi had death in her eyes. "We care," she says, shaking him. "I hope you're not allergic to nuts, because I'm gonna kick yours up your throat!"

Hanzo looked scared.

"In other words," Menchi finishes, sitting down, "Y'all don't have guts to try anything new, so how can you be hunters without experimenting?"

I zoned out, wondering if I still have to compete in the egg whatever thingie, when Buhara knocks fat sumo guy into a pillar.

"Listen up bitches," Menchi says, standing up with a bunch of knives. "Gourmet hunters usually venture into the dens of beasts to search for ingredients."

She begins to juggle the knives, and everyone looks in awe. "We all know martial arts, gourmet or not we are pretty good at what we do, and that's why we are hunters." She finishes, catching the rest of the knives with one hand.

Everyone looked shocked, and I'm still standing up where they were standing for a reason...

I look towards the sky and see a blimp, with the old man himself Netero coming down. I quickly run out of the way and back to my station, as Netero and Menchi talk about how she was being unfair and how she has to compete in the new test.

"Alright! The new challenge shall be boiled eggs. Can we borrow your air ship?" Menchi says, and Netero nods.

"To the airship!" Netero says, as the airship lands and we all pile on.

"Excuse me, mister," I say, tapping the old man on the back.

"Yes?" he says, with a look in his eyes that I cannot possibly describe, like the spark of life in him. Like he is always energetic and ready to face whatever, whenever.

"I already passed the second phase with the pork, should I do this test?" I ask, and he smiles. "No, you don't have to, you're free to wander the airship, second phase starts tomorrow at 8," he says, and I nod.

"Thanks!" I say, walking to the common area where my party is at.

"Hey guys!" I say, walking over to them.

"Congrats on winning phase 2 without the retry," Kurapika says, "Yeah, those enchilahadas smelled good!" Gon says, and I laugh. "Thanks, and they're called enchiladas."

"We've arrived, all retry-ers for the phase 2 please exit through this way!" A voice says, and my party leaves. "Good luck!" I say, waving to them, and when I'm sure they're gone I run to the girl's bathroom.

"Ahh! Finally!" I say, walking in. It looked more like a locker room, with a shower area, changing area and bathroom area.

I quickly stripped my clothes and binder, and hopped into one of the shower stalls, setting a change of clothes outside of it.

"Ooo! Free shampoo and conditioner! And body wash too!" I say to myself, and I turn on the water.

"Ahh! So hot, and warm and nice and great!" I say as the warm water hits me, and I wash my hair and body, relaxing in the heat. When was the last time I had a hot shower? Last year? When I was 10? Hot water was too expensive to afford, especially in large quantities at my house... So I didn't shower at my house, but at my school in the morning, but the hot water isn't turned on until 8 o' clock and I showered at 6:00 there.

I haven't felt this happy in forever, surrounded by a group of friends who don't pity me and treat me as an equal, good food, kind faces, and the adventure of a lifetime. Since I was alone, I could finally sing in the shower for once!

 _"Happiness hit her like a train on a track_  
 _Coming towards her stuck still no turning back,"_ I say, turning off the shower because I was starting to prune. An idea came to my head, since I have a new name, a new hairstyle would fit...

 _"She hid it 'round corners and she hid it under beds_  
 _She killed it with kisses and from it she fled,"_ I twisted my hair into one of the towels, and wrapped another around my body and dried off.

 _"With every bubble she sank with her drink_  
 _And washed it away down the kitchen sink,"_ Taking off the towel, I hung it up and put on a different set of clothes from my backpack, making sure to tightly wrap my binder, and pulled out the pocket watch from my dad. It's currently 3:30, and the rest of the test takers would return at 7:00 after finishing their exams. I'll have to find a laundry machine to wash my dirty clothes...

 _"The dog days are over_  
 _The dog days are done,"_ taking off the towel from my head, I brush my long-ish hair and put it in a high pony tail.

 _"The horses are coming_  
 _So you better run!"_ Pulling scissors from my backpack, I set them on the counter and look in the mirror, loosening my ponytail slightly.

 _"Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father_  
 _Run for your children, for your sisters and brothers,"_ Without hesitation, I chop off the hair and discard it in the trash can.

 _"Leave all your love and your longing behind_  
 _You can't carry it with you if you want to survive,"_ I brush through my new, shorter hair. When it dries, it'll be shorter, but it looks kinda like Killua's except a bit messier and had more hair in the back. I like this a lot... Much more convenient.

 _"The dog days are over_  
 _The dog days are done_  
 _Can you hear the horses?_  
 _'Cause here they come!"_ I clean up my mess in the bathroom, and wrap the scarf back around my head again. I need to look for a weapon soon for the island...

I look at my pocket watch again, taking note of its design. It's a golden hue, and has a sapphire gem in the middle that shines brightly. I rub my thumb over the sapphire, and it wiggles slightly. Aghck! I can't have this falling out!

Pressing down on the blue sapphire, it glows golden for a moment, before turning into a large sword? Woah! My pocket watch turned into a large friggin' sword!

It has a hilt with star triangle points on it, and the hilt is the gold color of the pocket watch. The blade is silver, and has a large sapphire in it.

"Cool!" I say, pressing the sapphire in the middle, and I watch as a large, golden star appears at the tip of the blade.

"Wow! But how do I turn it back into a pocket watch?" I say aloud, and without thinking the sword turns into a pocket watch into my hand. "Huh, it's four o' clock," I say, checking the time.

"Maybe it can be verbally activated by me?" I say, "This sword needs a name so I can summon is easier... How about...

"Praecipula!" I call out, and the sword forms in my hand. Sweet! I remember when studying Astronomy that Praecipula translates to 'principal star' and is a star in the Leo minor.

"Return," I say, and the sword shrinks back to it's original size. What about my amulet? I take it off.

I press my thumb against the sapphire in the center, and it turns into a sapphire flask... Does Dr. Pepper exist in this world?

I unscrew the top, and take a swig. It's Dr Pepper... does the liquid in it turn into whatever I want or need? That works really well, because I can get a smoothie if I'm hungry, or healing medication...

"Flask, return!" I say, and it turns back into a amulet. I put it back around my neck, tucking it under my shirt. I look at my wrist, the friendship bracelet is a symbol of love from my dad, so it doesn't do anything.

I take all my stuff and leave the bathroom, and I head to an empty room that no on would dare even going to after all the work out, the gym.

It wouldn't be used later until 11:00 or so by Gon and Killua's ball snatch game, so I go to a corner in the gym, and put my bag down as a pillow and fall asleep...

I wake up, feeling someone poking me. "What," I groan out, opening my eyes and seeing Gon and Killua.

"Oh hey guys, I was taking a nap while you were all retaking the test," I say, and they nod.

"We had really good eggs!" Gon says, and I give a thumbs up. "Hello again Eri," Netero says, popping out from behind them. "Care to play a game with us? The rule is if you take the ball from me before we arrive, I'll give you a Hunter's license.

"Fine, can I see what the ball is like before we start, I'd like to see how it's trajectory works," I say, rubbing my blurry eyes.

"Sure," Netero says, passing me the ball. I grab it, and quickly holding it close to my stomach, turtling over.

"I took the ball, I want my license now," I say, and I feel someone picking me up.

"Nice try Eri," Netero says, taking the ball from me, and I stick my tongue out.

I jump out of his arms. "You guys can start. I'll watch," I say, sitting by my stuff.

I watch Killua, Gon, and them both together try. It was exciting, but I was getting bored since I've seen this scene many times.

"Forget it," Killua says, standing up. "I'm leaving."

"Why?" Gon says, "We still have plenty of time."  
"I'll come with you Killua," I say, standing up and stretching. "That was entertaining to watch, but Gon and Killua would never win against Netero-san with only little experience. They need to get stronger for even a slim chance of winning."

Grabbing my backpack, I walk up to Killua. "Let's go," I say, smiling.

"Okay," he says, "let's go."  
We leave, and walk down a hallway. Killua takes off his shirt, and hangs it in the back of his pants, white snowman skin glistening with sweat. I turn and see two guys walking towards us. We ignore them, and one bumps into me.

"Hey, wait up scarf kid," a guy says, and I turn around. "Yes?" I ask, Killua stopping next to me.

"You bump into us without apologizing? Must think you're special since you passed the second phase without retaking," one mocks, but I turn around and ignore him.

"Let's go," I mumble to Killua, but he's not next to me. I turn around and see Killua by the two guys' bodies on the floor, with Killua having an evil look in the eye and sharp nails.

"Wow Killua," I say, eyes widening in shock. "You're just like a kitty cat!" I say, smiling.

"What?! You just saw me kill two guys and you're comparing me to a kitty cat?" He says, looking like a shocked chibi.

"Well yeah! I mean, look at your nails, they're retractable, like a kitty cat. You are quick and nimble when you feel like it, like a kitty cat. You're lazy ish most of the time, like a kitty cat. And sometimes, it looks like your hair has ears! So kawaii!" I say, and he just shakes his head.

"Whatever," he says, and I reach into my bag.

"What are you doing?" He says, and I pass him a snickers bar. "Are you hungry?" I ask, and he nods.

"Figures, you're not you when you're hungry," I say. "Eat up."  
He unwraps the chocolate bar and eats it whole. "Better?" I say, watching his eyes return to normal, and he nods

"Great than," I say, "Let's get some rest."

"You're treating me like a friend, even though you just watched me kill two people. You figured that I'm an assassin from a family of assassins, right?" He says, walking next to me.

"Well duh, I know that trick you did earlier is an underground technique, but that doesn't affect my opinion of you."

We walk into an empty room, and me being a lazy sloth and tired, I fall asleep again, and have dreams of memories of me and my brother playing badminton.

I wake up, and leave the airship with Killua, Gon, Leorio and Kurapika. We arrive at a the flat tower, and Beans explains the rules.

"I'll look for a way out," I say, walking away from the group. I turn around, and walk around for a while until I accidentally step onto a trap door, and fall in.

"OOmpf," I say, as I land on my butt. I look around the room, it looks exactly the same as the room Gon ends up in almost a day later.

"Hello Eri," a voice says in my ear, and I turn around and see Hisoka in his full McCreep glory.

"Hello Hisoka," I say, nodding towards him.

"We can start if you put on the watch," he says, jacking his thumb towards a pillar with a watch on it.

I put it on, and a TV screen pops up, with writing on it.

"It says we are going to have mind games and physical fights, and if a person is unable to go on their partner can leave them if absolutely necessary," he says smirking, looking at me.

"Oh hell no," I say, looking him in the eye. "You ain't killing me off that easily."

"Truce?" He asks, and I nod.

"Hello, hello," a staticky voice says from the speaker, "I will ask you a riddle, and if each of you get it right you may move on. You're allowed to help each other."

Hisoka and I look at each other and nod.

"Feed me and I live, yet give me a drink and I die. What am I?" He asks, and I roll my eyes.

"Fire," I say, "If you feed the fire wood it continues to burn, but if you pour water on it, the fire will burn out." This riddle was in a riddle I read in fifth grade too...

"Correct, now for Hisoka. What can you catch, but not throw?"

He thinks for a moment, tapping his foot. "What do you think it is, Eri?" He asks, looking at me.

"I think it's a sickness, a cold," I say, and he thinks for a few more moments.

"Alright, is it a cold?" He asks.

"Yes it is, proceed to the next room."

A door opening slides up the wall, and we enter. Inside is three doors, and they have images on each, and a TV with writing on it is above the middle door.

"OK, Hisoka this may sound weird but I don't know how to read, so can you read a loud please?" I say, and he smirks.

"How, innocent, alright I will," Hisoka says smirking. "'In each room is something you must face, and you will die if you chose wrongly. In room 1 there is a murderer, in room 2 there's an electric chair, and in room 3 there is a vicious lion who hasn't eaten in a month, and is very hungry. Please chose your room."

"Well, what do you want? I've already decided," I say, and he smirks. "I chose the electric chair, I can smash it so it won't work," Hisoka says, and I roll my eyes.

"No dum-dum, think logically. A murderer would kill us, an electric chair would fry our brains, and the vicious lion who hasn't eaten in a month would..." Hisoka has a frown on his face, and than it looks like he had a light bulb.

"Eat us."

"No! They wouldn't do anything because..." I trail off, hoping he'd get a hint.

"He'd be dead already, because he hasn't eaten," Hisoka says, and I nod.

"Let's go door numero tres," I say, walking to the door with a picture of a lion on it, and turning the handle and I walk in.

Inside is a set of staircases, and Hisoka and I walk down until we reach the next room.

"Another riddle, but you will now answer without any help. Eri, what body part is pronounced as one letter but written with three, but has only two different letters used?"

I think for a moment, this one was tricky, and I quickly run through the alphabet.

"Eye," I say.

"Correct. Hisoka, what flies without wings?"

Oh, this one was easy, it's obviously tim-

"A ghost of a person who committed suicide," Hisoka says with a smirk, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Wrong! Eri, you can chose to A) leave Hisoka on his own for 50 hours, B) Share the time with him for 25 hours or C) answer another riddle and only spend 2 hours together, but this riddle is 10 times more complicated."

I look at Hisoka and sigh, even though he's a sadistic psychopath, I might need his help later on.

"I'll do option C," I say, and Hisoka smirks at me. "Good luck," he says, "you'll need it."

"Yeah yeah save the ass kissing for later," I say, and he chuckles.

"Two fathers and their two sons go fishing together. They each catch one fish to take home with them. They do not lose any fish, but when they arrive at home they only have three fish. How can this be?"

I think for a moment, if a father is the father of a father, that'd be two fathers. And if he's the father of a father, that's one son, and than the son of the father's father is the second son.

"It's a grandpa, father and their son. The grandpa is the father of the father, and the father is the father of his son, which is two sons. Than, if the father is the father of his son, the grandpa is the father of the father of the son," I say.

"Confusing explanation, but it will do. You will be left in a room for 1 hour at the end of the test," the voice says, and a panel in the wall slides open, with a set of staircases going down.

"Please enter to go on," the voice says, and we start going down the staircases.

"You're lucky I'm a nice person," I say, and Hisoka laughs. "Sure you are," he says.

"Anyway, I need a favor, and soon. I need a gun and a bullet, preferably a hand gun. You dig?" I say, and he arches an eyebrow. "How can you go on mass genocide with a singular bullet?" He asks, and I shake my head.

"And how would I dig with a gun?"

"Nevermind that, but can you get me the handgun and the bullet? I'll explain in all due time," I say.

"Sure, I'll get it for you before the final trial."

We continue to walk down the stairs, until we reach a door. We enter through it, and the room is pitch black.

"So, you've come Hisoka," a gruff voice says, and the door closes behind us, and red candles light up around us, sending the room into an eerie green color.

"I am here for my revenge, Hisoka!' He says, looking up. "Since last year's exam, all I've been thinking about is killing you." Standing up, he sends a vicious grin toward Hisoka, and whips out a mini hand scythe.

"OOo! How exciting! Revenge for marring one's face," I say, "Don't mind me, I just don't wanna be sliced to mini-Eri bite size pieces, I'll be on the staircase. I'll haunt you both if I die, just sayin'." They look at me, Hisoka smirking and the guy with a confused look on his face. I walk to the stairs and sit down. "Continue," I say, and they look back at each other.

"The scars only show that you were an incompetent examiner," Hisoka says, smirk growing on his face. "You're blaming me for your failures."

The man grins more, and whips out another scythe and swings it. "Keep yappin'!" He says, "It's time to die!"

He throws his blades up in the air, and whips out two more. "Infinite quad wielding!"

They battle for a bit, and I notice Hisoka acting like he cares less. Turns out, he doesn't care, and grabs two of the scythes out of the air, and kills the man by beheading.

The candles go out, and a door opens. "Hisoka, pass me one of the scythes," I say, and he looks at me.

"Are you going to try to kill me now? How naughty~" he says, smirk on face. "I don't have a weapon," I say, and he nods.

"A boy has to protect himself from predators," he says, passing me one of the scythes. "Use it well."

"Thanks," I say, grabbing the hilt and walking towards the body, putting my hands on his thigh.

"Wow, you don't seem like the type to grope dead people, how fascinating~"

"No, I'm looking to see if he has a sheath," I say, rolling my eyes. I find one, and pull it off his body and sheathing the weapon.

"Let's go." I walk towards the door opening with Hisoka, and see an exit blocked off by bars. "Because of Hisoka's failure to answer the question, and Eri making up for it, you must spend 2 hours here."  
"That's not too bad, we have 76 hours left," I say, and Hisoka nods. "Want to play a game?" I ask, and Hisoka shrugs.

"Depends, what's the game?"

"Hmm... how about Road Toad?" I say, and he looks confused. "What's a Road Toad? I've never seen that magical creature before."

"It's a rhyming game. One player makes a pair of rhyming words or phrases, then provides a second pair of unrhymed words as the clue. For example, if I were tell you the clue is "street frog," the closest set of rhyming words would be "road toad."

"Ok, I'll start," he says. "Underwater circus."

"Hmmm," I say, "Aqua Fiesta."

"That makes no sense," he says. "Well, it rhymes and is the closest thing that rhymes, my turn."

This went on for an hour, and we were running out of ideas as we both made it harder and harder for eachother.

"Genocide Bird," he says smirking, and I laugh. "Easy, Killer Roadrunner."

"That makes no sense!" He says, throwing his hands up. "A roadrunner is a bird! Ha!" I say, sticking my tongue out. "We're tied, and I'm gonna win," I say, and he puts his hands on his hips. "Try me."

"Moldy orange."

"..." he thinks, trying to find a word for orange. But, no currently existing word rhymes with orange! Hehe, I'm so evil for this, but whatever. I wanna win :D

"Old fruit?" He says, and I cross my arms in an X shape. "Doesn't rhyme! I win," I say, and he sighs in defeat.

"Let's play cards," he says, pulling out a deck of cards from his pocket. "Go fish?" I ask, and he shrugs. "Sure."

For the final hour, we played Go Fish, and we tied, when the cage doors lifted.

"You can now exit the Trick Tower," the voice on the speaker says, and we both stand up and exit into a circular, stone room with doors.

"Ahhh, no more riddles!" I say, spreading my arms out. "This is nice," Hisoka says, and I nod.

"Hisoka, applicant number 44, is the first to pass with a time of 5 hours and 59 minutes!" The speaker says. "Eri, applicant 406, is the second to pass with a time of 5 hours and 59 minutes!"

"Agh, I thought we came in at the same time," I slouch at the wall, and Hisoka sits next to me.

I pull out the book about the Hunter x Hunter world, and begin to read. It's about culture, basic magical creatures, and has a conversion for my alphabet to the HxH alphabet. I lay on the floor on my stomach, head resting on hands, and occasionally turning the page. I re-read the HxH alphabet, and I think I've memorized it by now.

I look up at Hisoka, "Do you have a piece of paper?" I ask, and he reaches into a pocket and pulls out a deck of cards.

"They lack a face," he says, passing me the deck. "Thanks!" I say, and I reach into my backpack and pull out a sharpie.

"What are you doing?" He says, standing up and walking in front of me, squatting down to look at the book.

"I've memorized the alphabet," I say, "now all I need to do is practice writing and reading in it. Can you tell me some words?" I ask looking up at him, and he looks shocked. "You seriously don't know how to read or write?"

"Well, yeah," I say, looking back at the book. "I come from a different country, and I only know how to read or write in that language."

"Well, let's start with your name, Eri. It's only two symbols, so that's easy to start off with," Hisoka says, and I write my name with the symbols. "Does this look like my name?" I ask, holding up the card and he nods.

For the next 6 hours, I wrote. It was hard, especially with Hisoka who started giving me complicated words, but it payed off. "I'm gonna go use the bathroom," I say, standing up and walking to the door with the symbols for bathroom over it.

"Have fun," he replies, pulling out a deck of regular cards, and starts making a card house.

Inside the bathroom is a shower, a toilet, bathtub and other bathroom necessities. I open up the bathroom door, and poke my head out. "I'm gonna shower, so I won't be out for a while," I say, he nods, eyes focused on the card tower, and I close the door and lock it. I use the bathroom, and head to the shower.

I turn on the shower, and the speaker in the bathroom announces that Gittaruckur is the next to come in. I quickly finish, before drying off, putting my clothes back on and heading out to the common area.

"Hey Gittaruckur," I say, waving towards him. "Hello applicant 406," he says robotically and shakily, holding up a shaky hand. "Call me Eri," I say, walking back over to my book and the empty cards. "Nice house," I say to Hisoka, and he nods. "Now, where were we-" he begins, and a door slides open.

"Yay! I'm the first to pass!" Hanzo says, running in before looking at us. "DAmmn it!" He says, "I can't believe I came in third..."

"Actually, hi," I say, "Don't know if you noticed me, but I came in second. You're fourth," I say, and he angrily rubs his bald head. "A child beat me, a child!" He whispers angrily, sitting down against a wall.

"Yeah yeah," I say, looking at Hisoka. "Here," he says, passing me a small book. I flip it open, and it's all symbols. "What? This looks so hard!" I say, pouting. "Read it, when you're done tell me what it's about," he says, and I roll my eyes. "Fine," I say. "If you want, you can read the converter to my language to learn how to use my alphabet," I say, pointing towards my book.

"Sure, there's nothing else to do," he says, picking up the book and reading the converter.

"What? I was beat by a child who can't read?" Hanzo whispers angrily from his side, but I roll my eyes. "Stop being so salty," I say, and he rubs his bald head.

I finish the book in 4 hours. In that time, the poison blow dart guy Gerrata is finishing the book, I smugly tossed it towards Hisoka.

"What's it about," he says, looking up at me.  
"It's about how to properly dispose of a body, " I say, "odd book, but very informational."  
"Really? I haven't read it, so maybe I will, I should freshen up my information about how to properly dispose of a body," he says thoughtfully, and anger marks appear on my head.  
"I could've made up any book plot line and you would've said it was okay!" I say angrily, and he shrugs.  
"But you read the book, right?" He says, and I nod. "That's all that matters."  
"Ack!" I say, falling back. That book was so gory, I'd rather have read a whole dictionary of the HXH language than read that again.

"I'm tired, so I'm gonna crash. I need energy for the next phase..." I say, pulling my backpack to my head as a pillow.  
"Please...don't...murder me...while I sleep..." I sleepily day, before dozing off.

I wake up to the sound of a door opening, and Pockle and the bearded guy step in with a time of 30 hours. If I do the math, I've slept almost 14 hours!

"God, I was really tired," I say, rubbing my eyes and adjusting my scarf.  
"Welcome back," Hisoka says, "you look absolutely wonderful when you sleep~"  
"And I thought you were done being creepy," I say, and he laughs. I stand up and stretch, some joints cracking, and I roll my shoulders.

"How did everyone do?" I say loudly to the newly arrived people.

"It sucked," Pokkle says, but everyone else was quiet. Screw them, everyone but mustache guy #311 and poison dart guy would die or not pass.

I look over at Gittaruckur, who seems to be eating breadsticks or something, but I try really hard to not laugh as he eats. I reach into my backpack and pull out a box of cheese it's, and I munch on them.

"What are you eating? Those orange squares?" Hanzo asks, looking over at my box.

"Cheese It's," I say, grabbing a couple and passing them to him. "They're basically crackers."

He puts them in his mouth. "They're delicious!" He says, and I nod. "Yeah, that's why I'm eating them, and saving them for later too," I say, grabbing a handful before putting the rest in my backpack.

"Hey Hisoka," I say, and he looks up at me from the book. "Yes~?" He asks creepily, and I shudder.

"Stop doing that creepy thing! It's weird," I say, and he grins. "Also, how's the reading going?" I ask, and he shrugs. "I memorized your 'English Alphabet', it is very easy."

"Than start practicing words!" I say, throwing a Cheese It at him, and he catches it in his mouth, licking his lips.

"Tasty," he says, pulling out some empty cards. "Pen?" I toss him a pen, and he starts writing words on cards.

"This is soooo boring," I say aloud, and people nod in agreement.

"Does everyone want to play a game?" I ask, looking around at people, and they all seem interested, but they want to act cool. I walk to the center of the room. I sigh, "Listen up everyone, let's say what happens in this room, stays in this room. We don't have to act cool or whatever like you think you are, we have 20 more hours until the next phase starts. Let loose."

"I'll play," Pockle says, walking towards the center and sitting across from me.

"I shall too," Hanzo says, and the Poison dart guy nods, before walking towards the center.

"I'm Goz, and I'll play," says the mustache guy, walking towards us and sitting down.

"Gittaruckur, you in?" I say, looking towards him. "Sure," he says, walking shakily towards us and sitting down next to me on my right side.

"Hisoka, you in?" I ask. "What's in it for me~?" He asks, and I roll my eyes.

"A release from boredom for 20 hours," I say, and he shrugs. "Why not," he says, sitting on my left side.

"Now that everyone's here, let's play Blackjack!" I say, and Hisoka pulls out a deck of cards and chalk. In the blink of an eye, the setup is arranged.

"I'll be dealer," Gittaruckur say, and we all nod.

"What should we use for chips?" Hanzo says, and I think.

"How about Cheese It's?" I say, pulling out the box. "We each get 20 to start, and we'll decide how much we can bet," I say, passing everyone 20 each.

We play for a bit, with Hisoka winning the first round, Hanzo winning the second, me winning the third and Goz winning the fourth. It was 5 hours in, and we had 10 more people join the game.

"Y'all are really good at this game, I'm going to take a nap," I say, walk towards where I was earlier and I crashed for a few hours.

When I wake up, I look at my watch, and there's only 7 hours left, and almost everyone has arrived except Gon and his party. I use the restroom again, and walk to Hanzo, who looks like he's meditating.

"Hey Hanzo," I say, sitting in front of him. "Yes?" He says, opening one eye. "Why is your head bald?" I ask, and he opens both eyes.

"Well, don't tell anyone this but," he says, leaning in, "I'm a ninja."

"Really?" I say, acting surprised. "That's pretty cool!" "I know right," he boasts, puffing his chest out. "Is being a ninja tough?" I ask, and he shrugs. "I'm pretty much used to it, but I did intensive training a lot."

"How do you meditate?" I ask, and he smiles. "I'm finally feeling like a sensei!" He mutters, as if I'm not there. "Close your eyes, and clear your mind. Steady your breathing patterns, and find peace."

"That sounds hard," I say, crossing my legs and putting my hand on each leg. "It is at first, but just find your center point."

I close my eyes, and find a breathing pattern, nice, slow and relaxed. I repeat this pattern for a while, and I feel utterly relaxed and at peace, than the door shudders open.

I open an eye and look at the door, and see Gon and his party walk in. Have I really been meditating for 7 hours?

"Yes, time flies by fast if that's what you're thinking," Hanzo whispers, and I nod.

"Hey Gon," I say, standing up and walking towards them.

"Hi Eri!" He says energetically, bouncing towards me.

"Sorry we got separated, I fell down a trap door," I say, sticking my tongue out.

"That's okay!" He says, and Killua, Kurapika and Leorio walk up to me.

"Hello," I say, waving towards them, and they nod in response. A door shudders open, and I can see the blue sky.

"Freedom!" I shout, running outside. It's sunny, there's a nice breeze, and I feel like I need to release some energy, and I do a few cartwheels around while everyone is walking out. I back bend over, and kick my legs up into a handstand, and I push off the ground with my arms and onto my feet. I'm standing next to Hisoka, and I stick my hand out to him.

"Thanks for helping me to learn how to read and write, friend," I say, and he grins at me. Not a creepy grin, but a nice grin.

"Thank you for teaching me your English alphabet and being my partner in trick tower, friend," he says, shaking my hand.

"Good luck! And don't forget what you promised me!" I say, waving good bye and walking towards Gon and his party.

"What were you doing with Hisoka?" Killua asks, "He's a major creep."

"We were in Trick Tower together," I say. "We're also friends."

"Friends? He is really scary!" Leorio says, running his hands through his hair.

"Exterior and interior are very different," I say, rolling my eyes and walking away from them.

I walk closer up front to where Mohawk glasses stood.

"Lady and gentleman, all 27 of you, congratulations on exiting Trick Tower and finishing phase 3," he says, glasses reflecting the light.

"The fourth phase will take place over there," he says, jacking his thumb back, "on Zevil Island."

A bald guy in a booger green robe walks up with a box. "Draw lots," he says gruffly, "starring with the person who exited first."

Hisoka walks up and draws his lot, looks at it expressionlessly, and walks back to where he was standing.

I walk over to the box and draw a lot, and look at it. Number 7, I think it's the guy with a pink pony tail and glasses (a/n- it's a random character who doesn't exist in the show).

I walk back to my spot, and put my card into my backpack pocket. I have a game plan, and it's pretty easy to guess.

Everyone else draws lots, and I see the pink ponytail guy draws his right before Gon and his friends, and I do the math and calculate how long it'll take for him to come onto the island.

The bald Mohawk guy explains the rules, and we get onto the boat where the perky ginger lady explains the rules. I sit alone, because I already know what numbers everyone else is. I see Gon looking at me sadly, but I ignore his looks. I close my eyes, and meditate how Hanzo taught me.

"You'll all be leaving 5 minutes apart," the lady says, making me open one eye, "so the first one to exit Trick Tower, please be ready to go."

Hisoka stands up, and walks to the front of the boat.

"Ready, go!" She says, and Hisoka calmly walks off the boat and on to the island.

I stand up, walking to the front of the boat. I hear muttering, some words saying 'I can't believe he's second' or 'Cheap tricks to get second."

I roll my eyes, and get ready to run off the boat.

"Ready," the lady says, "go!"

I jump off the boat and run on to the beach, and I see 2 white shells in front of me. I run towards them, bend down, pick it both up, and keep running. I run probably 10 meters in, and I climb it to the 7th branch, so I'm about 20 feet up. I lean against the trunk, and look at the shells.

Both are plain white, and looks like a regular sea shell (like a mermaid bra shell). I pull out my pocket watch and press the button, but instead of becoming a full our sword it because a short knife, with a wide, flat blade.

"This will work well," I whisper, and take the knife and file down the shell carefully, rounding out edges and making it look more circular. I reach into my backpack, and pull out a sharpie, and I write the number '406' on it so it looks identical to my tag. I pull a metal bobby pin from my backpack. I won't need bobby bins for a while, so who cares anyway?I pull tape from my backpack and put the bobby pin on the back of the shell. I repeat this process with the second shell, but I write '7' on it. "Return," I whisper, and the knife returns to pocket watch form, and I put it in my backpack.

It looks like my pin, but on closer inspection it looks like a seashell with a stick. I pull out a pad wrapper, and wrap the pin into the wrapper, before putting it in my pad box. I shove it back down my bag, and I wait for pink ponytail guy to run by.

About an hour later, he does with his pin in his hand. I follow him by hopping from tree to tree, and soon enough he stops in the middle of a clearing with a pond in the middle, and I watch from the outskirts. Long, tall grass is everywhere, which will be an advantage. He sniffs his armpit, before making a face, and he strips, putting his pin into his bag. Thank god the tall grass covered his lower half... He hops into the pond, and he swims onto the other side and starts bathing.

I hop down from the tree, and army crawl/shimmy towards the bag. I grab the pin from the bag, and place the fake number 7 in there, before I army crawl away from the scene to the tree I was in previously, before I started tree hopping like I had been before to a tree in the middle of the forest, which is the tallest tree there. I climb to the top, and check my pocketwatch. It's currently 5:00, and I believe everyone has arrived on the island. I take the pin I stole from #7, and I take another pad wrapper and wrap it around the pin.

I take off my amulet, and press down on the button before releasing it. It becomes a bowl full of sliced watermelon.

'So my pocket watch is for weapons or tools,' I think, 'and my amulet is for drink or food.'

I munch on the watermelon, and it's the tastiest thing I've ever had! The watermelon juices are so sweet and delicious...

It's a good time for me to take a nap so I'll be rested to take action in the morning, so I grab a rope from my bag and tie myself to the tree securely, and take my backpack and use the front clips to keep me on. I put the watermelon discards into the bowl. "Return," I mutter, and it turns back into an amulet, which I clasp around my neck.

 **-I know the MC seems to fall asleep easily, but they are expending a lot of energy, and it helps me, the Author, do time skips to keep the story line moving steadily-**

I wake up, checking my pocket watch. It's currently 2 AM, and I have a plan. I take off my amulet, and imagine a flask full of strong sleeping sedatives, before pressing the sapphire button. The amulet transforms into a flask, and I smirk.

I untie myself from the tree, and stand up on the branch, so my head pokes through. I locate a pond, different from the one I was earlier, and hop from tree to tree, before I reach the pond, which is surrounded by sand this time instead of grass. Making sure no one was by the pond, I sneak down and pour the sleeping sedative into the pond. On the sand, there's white shells like the ones I found earlier, and I take 3 before running back quickly to a surrounding tree. I climb to the top, hiding between leaves and branches.

I pull out my pocket watch, and press the button as the same blade from earlier appears. I smooth out the edges, and attach more bobby pins to the back, but I leave the front blank. I hear a rustling, and I look up. A guy with a monkey, who I'll call AC (Aladdin Copycat) for simpleness, was walking to the pond. He pulls out a flask, and takes a scoop from the pond, and chugging the pond water. The monkey just puts his face in the water, and drinks straight from it. I shudder, that's pretty gross, I'm glad I have my flask.

They sit back, smirking as if they just did something special by finding a pond and drinking from it, but soon both of their eyes roll into the back of their head, and they fall unto the beach.

I jump off the tree and run towards them, taking the guy's badge which he put in his pocket. Dumb move. I take his pin, and put the fake on in there. I drag his body away from the pond and against a tree about 50 steps away from the sand, and I put the monkey's next to his. When they'll wake up, they'll think they took a nap.

I climb back up the tree, and wrap the pin in another pad. I just have a bunch of loose pads in my backpack.

Gittaruckur/Illumi robotically waddled up to the lake, but I didn't even bother. He is immune to most poisons, most likely including sleeping droughts, or it won't have much effect on him. I was correct, and he waddled off.

I collected two more pins from two more people, and soon had 9 pins. Over the next 4 days, I practiced meditating, and learned how to conceal my presence through meditation. I just thought of taking my presence away like locking myself in a treasure chest. I also learned how to sense other presences from up to 30 meters away if they weren't concealing it, by imagining myself reaching out towards other treasure chests to see if they have a glimmer of gold (gold being their presence). I can tell how strong they are on how strong their gold glitters.

I was currently sitting in a meadow, and was on high alert. But not at the same time, because I was collecting flowers. Flowers to make myself this amazing flower crown. In my imagination, in the dark, at 6' o clock direction wise was someone about 15 meters away from me, but I pretended I didn't see them.

I continue to collect flowers, until I figure I have enough, so I start weaving them together to make flower crowns. I make two, when a branch snaps behind me, estimating about 10 meters. I put on one flower crown, securing it tightly over my scarf, than I take off my amulet, and summon a ketchup squeezer full of fruit juice (like the ones that have the tiny hole that shoots out ketchup, all red, y'know). I set the other flower crown on the ground and squeeze the fruit juice all over it, before taking the grass around it and drying it. "Return," I mutter, and the fruit juice squeezer turned back into an amulet, and I put it back on. I imagine the dark room, and see the glimmering gold is closer. But, at best it's a shimmering penny. "Come closer, I dare you," I say, and hear the pounding of feet.

"Ahhhh!" A battle cry is heard, as the person jumps in the air to try to take my bag, but I just fall back into the grass and lift my leg in the air, and the person hits it and falls to the side. It's one of the brothers, the fatter one.

"Give me your tag, little boy, or I'll beat you up!" he says, shaking his fist angrily.

"No," I say, and he looks mad. "Why not? Last warning!" He says, raising a fist.

"Because you didn't say please," I say, turning away from him.

"Uh, can I please have your tag," he says, and I turn back to him and wink. "Good job, you know how to be polite!" I say, and toss him my fake tag. "Have fun!" I say, blowing him a kiss. "Do you want a flower crown while you're here? I just made them," I say, holding the one with fruit juice all over it up.

"Uhhhh," he says, looking around. "Put on the damn flower crown and keep it on your head for the rest of this damn phase or I will murder you in your sleep using the pin I gave you," I say, casting a shadow over my eyes to look scary.

"O-okay!" He says, taking the flower crown and putting it on top of his head. "Great! If you even bother taking it off I'll know and definitely slaughter you!" I say, and walk away.

Baka. One time a kid at school during summer spilled a bunch of fruit juice all over his shoes, and wasps followed him until he took off the shoes.

Tomorrow is the last day, and he'll show up to the port thinking he collected my tag, when in reality he doesn't have anything. I smirked, was I too harsh on him? Nah, he'll come back next year... and fail.

I stretch, and headed back to the port where I originally came from, and I tied myself to the highest branch of the closest tree, and fell asleep.

I wake up to the sound of people talking below me, and I look over and see Gon, Kurapika and Leorio.

"Hey!" I say, and they look up towards me.

"Hey Eri!" Gon says, and I untie myself from the tree and hop down.

"What's good?" I say, looking towards all of them.

"Leorio is looking for his target, the only girl in the Hunter Exams," Kurapika says, crossing his arms.

"Screw that, Leorio you owe me one," I say, reaching into my bag and pulling out three un-needed badges. I have nine points all together, with mine, my target's, and the three I collected from the sleeping potion pond trick. Leorio's mouth drops.

"H-how? Are you sure you don't need those?" He asks, and I shake my head. "You can have them, I already have mine and my target's," I say, pulling out #7 and #406. "See?" I say, before putting them back in my bag.

"Please!" he says, and I give them to him.

"Wow!" Gon says, and Kurapika nods. "Well, in about..." I say, pulling out my pocket watch, "five minutes, we'll start gathering towards the port."

They nod, and they start exchanging stories about how they got their pins, the tasks they faced, and whatnot.

"What did you do Eri?" Kurapika asks, looking me up and down.

"Well, I-"

"All applicants please return to the starting point, the Fourth Phase is now over. You will be given an hour to return to the starting point, and all applicants who fail to return to this point within the hour will fail."

"Let's go," I say, nodding toward the port that's like 20 feet in front of us. They nod, and we all walk over, and I walk to the examiner lady who was on the boat with us. "Number 246 is trapped in a cave full of snakes and can't get out, she's been in there a while." I say, and the lady nods, and presses a button by her ear. "Code 482, number 246 in code 482," she says, before looking at me. "Thank you," she says, and I nod, before walking off.

An hour later, there's 10 people standing at the port. Killua, Gon, Leorio, Kurapika, Hanzo, Hisoka, Gittaruckur, Pokkle, Bodoro, one of the three brothers, and I. "Everyone hold up your badges!" The examiner lady says, and we all hold up our badges.

"Excuse me sir, that's not a badge," she says, looking at one of the brothers. "Of course it is! It's badge number 406!" He says, and looks at me. "He has a fake badge!" He says, pointing at me.

"You have a seashell," I say, and he looks at it closely, and everyone laughs. "Y-you tricked me! I'll kill you!" he says, and charges towards me like a bull. I just side step him, and he runs into a tree.

"Baka, you should've known I wouldn't have given my badge up so easily," I say, looking at him. "Did you enjoy the wasps?"

"Y-you did that too?" He says angrily, "I had to deal with wasps for 4 days because of you!"

"It was the flower crown," I say, sticking my tongue out.

"Security, please escort number 198 off the island," the examiner lady says, pressing a button on her head set as two security guards walk off the boat, and pic up the idiot.

"I'll kill you one day! I swear I will!" He says, as security drags him off into the woods.

"Everyone, onto the boat now for the final phase!" The lady says, and I cheer before running on to the boat.

* * *

This seems like a good place to leave off, sorry if some parts seemed rushed! I hope you all enjoy :D


	3. Biscuits x and x Kidnappings

Hey y'all, I'll be answering questions you have that you leave on review/PM to me, so feel free to do that! Leave a nice review and let the chapter begin!

* * *

We all went on to the boat, which led us to a helipad and on to the air blimp.

"You never told us what you did Eri," Gon says, "Start off where we separated at Trick Tower!"

"Okay," I say, and I go into a simplified version of the story. They nod, groan at parts, and smile too. "You didn't know how to read?" Kurapika says, and I nod. "Well, your language, I know how to read the language where I come from."

"Announcement!" a voice says from the speaker, "Chairman Netero would like to speak with everyone on the second floor, first reception room. Please come when your number is announced. Thank you! Please come number 44." The speaker clicks, and we all look at each other.

"Y'know, I bet this is personal written tests," I say, smirking. Gon puts his hands on his face, "Oh no! I absolutely am the worst at written tests!" He says.

"Don't worry about it," I say, sitting down and pulling out my cultural book about the world, and start reading. Soon, Leorio, Kurapika, and Gon leave.

"Number 406, please come to the first reception room," the speaker says, before clicking. I put my book into my back pack, and stand up, cracking my back. I walk to the reception room and knock.

"Please enter," Netero says, and I step inside and sit on a cushion.

"Now, Eri, why did you sign up for the Hunter Exams?" He says, and I think for a moment. I was just suddenly pulled into this universe, I really didn't have a choice, but I did have the choice to tag along and arrive here.

"I want to see the world," I say, "and help people. Hunters were the heroes of the fairy tales my mom read me books about at night time."

"Wise words, what is your mother's name?" Netero asks, "Hmmm, I haven't seen her in a while, but it's Spirea Woodruff, why?" I ask, and Netero's eyes widen, he appeared almost, scared?

"Please, if you want to live, don't mention that name," he says, "unless you have a death wish." I nod, and he smiles again.

"Which of the other 8 applicants do you have your eye on?" I think for a moment, all of them I was friends with.  
"I don't know, I have my eye on all of them. They all have a unique set of skills, like Pockle's poison arrows or Hisoka's cards."

"Which of the 8 other applicants would you least likely wish to fight?"

"Hmmm, Hisoka, and... Il-Gittaruckur," I say, correcting myself at the last moment. "Everyone else in the exams I'm either good friends with or neutral friends, but those 2 guys are major toughies."

"Who would you most want to fight?" He says, and I think. "I don't know, I'm usually not the first to run into a fight."

"Well, thank you," he says, "any other questions or requests?"

He is going to (SPOILERS) die in the chimera ant arc, and he doesn't appear up until than... so this may be my only chance.

"Can I braid your hair, please?" I ask with puppy dog eyes, and his eyes widen slightly, and he chuckles.

"Knock yourself out," he says, and I fist pump. "Where did you learn to braid?" He asks. "Sister, she would practice on me." I lie, and I walk over behind him, and pull out an extra hairband from my bag and do a sports braid, before looping the end.

"Done! Do you want me to wrap it into a bun?" I ask, and he shakes his head no. "I look peppy and fresh like this, thanks," he says with a laugh.

"Speaking of peppy and fresh, I'd recommend practicing your punches more," I whisper, just loud enough for him to hear, and his eyes widen slightly. "What?" he asks, and I walk towards the door, and look over my shoulder.

"Look towards the future, that is the opened door. Look towards the past, and all you see is a mirror," I state, before walking out.

Hisoka is leaning up against the glass, and nods at me. "I have the goods," he says, and I nod. I walk towards him, and he puts a handgun in my hand. "A bullet in there too, like promised."

"Good, now I need you to do something else. I've heard about your Bungee gum..." I say, trailing off, and he nods, as I discuss my plan.

"Got it, 4 away?" He says, and I nod. "If they start though, it's 3," I say. He nods, and walks off to my left towards the cafeteria. After he rounds the hallway, I run to my right and into the girl's bathroom. I relieve myself and take a shower, which feels odd with short hair. I put back on my clothes, and head to the dining hall. When I walk in, everyone seems to be there. Menchi is standing next to the door, leaning against the wall.

"Hey Menchi," I say, "did you make the food?"

"Nope," she says, popping the p, "it would taste really good if I did though."

"I bet it would, see you later!" I say, walking towards the table Gon and his party is sitting at.

We all chat for a bit during dinner, but I don't eat anything. "Why aren't you eating?" Killua says, looking at me. I point to the scarf, and he rolls his eyes. "Take it off, duh."

"No."

"Why not?" he asks, baffled.

"Don't feel like it," I say, grabbing my stuff and taking an apple from a basket. I go to the gym where Killua and Gon were with Netero earlier, and I put my bag down and fell asleep.

=++TIME SKIP (I'm trying to get the Hunter exams over with quickly so I can move on to another story line)

I wake up, and groggily rub my eyes and adjust my scarf. I exit the gym, and the speaker crackles. "Prepare for exit upon landing," the speaker says, before it clicks off. I walk to the loading dock with all the applicants, and the blimp's exit lowers and we all walk off. "Hey, let's take a photo while we're here, I have a camera," Leorio says, and I nod. "Why not?" I say, and Leorio passes the camera to Beans.

Gon, Kurapika and Killua lean into the photo. I flash a smile with a wink, Gon holds up peace signs, Kurapika crosses his arms, Killua lightly smiles with hands in pockets, and Leorio stands in the middle of us all, arms on our shoulders.

"Wow, this photo looks great! Send it to me once you get a copy," I say, and Gon raises his hand. "Me too, me too!" He says, and Kurapika nods. "I wouldn't mind having a copy," Kurapika says. "Neither would I..." Killua says. Leorio nods, and we all follow Beans to where we were supposed to go.

We're in the plaza side room, and Netero explains the rules, before revealing the big chart of champions. It's basically the same order as in the anime, except Gon and I have most chances, the loser goes on to Hanzo, and so on and so forth.

We walk to the giant plaza, and Gon and I look at eachother.

"Match, start!" Netero says, and I attempt looking Gon seriously in the eye. "Gon, I don't want to fight-with-fists with you, you're my friend," I say, and he nods.

"Rock paper scissors, loser out of 3 has to surrender?" I say, and Gon smiles. "I'm good at rock paper scissors, so watch out!" He says, and I play glare at him. "Try me."

"Rock-Paper-Scissors SHOOT!" We say, and I stick out scissors while he sticks out paper.

"Hah!" I say, and he sticks out his tongue. "Best out of 3!"

"'Kay," I say, rolling my eyes. "Rock-Paper-Scissors SHOOT!" We say, and he sticks out rock while I stick out scissors.

"Gah!"

"Final round!" He says, and I nod. "Rock-Paper-Scissors SHOOT!" We say, and I stick out rock while he sticks out paper.

"Nooooooo!" I fall to the floor, and I roll unto my back, "I hasth been defeated!"

"Ha! I win!" Gon says, jumping. "Surrender!"

"I surrender to Gon's luck!" I stick my hands up, and I jump up on to my feet. "That was exhausting, I need 2 hour break," I look at Netero, and he shakes his head. "Nice try, next up is Hanzo vs Eri."

I take off my backpack, and look at Hisoka. He winks, and I nod my head.

"Hanzo, I know you have some sweet ninja skills, and I don't want to be ultimately humiliated. I hold my pride dear to my heart," I say, and he nods. "Yes, if a child's pride is shattered, he may not have confidence as he does before, but that's growing up."

"N-no," I stutter, looking at my feet, shifting them nervously. "I-I can't compete with you, at all, you're way out of my league." While this may be true at the moment, I'll strive to be better than him.

"Well yes, I AM amazing," he boasts, "but I'm not going to Rock-Paper-Scissors."

"I wasn't going to suggest that, just here me out, OK?" I ask, and he nods. "Fine, what is it."

"Ever head of Russian Roulette?" I ask, and he shakes his head no.

I pull the gun out of my backpack, and show him and everyone else the barrel with the singular bullet.

"Russian Roulette is a high, risk game that involves a gun, putting it to your head and pulling the trigger. If you're lucky, you won't blast your brains out, but if you have the 1/6 chance of getting hit by a bullet, you're dead. Now, we don't want a death on our hands of course, so we will be placing the gun into our thigh," I say, taking the gun and pressing it against my thigh.

"I'll now spin the chamber, and we'll start. Do you agree?" I ask, and Hanzo nods nervously.

"Great," I say, sitting criss-cross-applesauce, and he sits across from me in the same style.

"I'll start," I say, pressing the gun against my thigh. I look at Hisoka, and he nods as I pull the trigger, and it just clicks.

"Your turn," I say, passing him the gun. He shakily puts it to his thigh, and the chamber clicks and he sighs in relief.

"You," he says, and passes me the gun. I put it to my thigh, and pull the trigger again, and it clicks.

I slide him the gun, and he puts it to his thigh confidently and pulls the trigger, and a 'oompf' is heard. He moves the gun away from his thigh, and a bullet hole is visible.

"Surrender," I say, and he nods. "Grow your pride, I surrender."

I stand up, and walk over to Hanzo and pick him up. Everyone looks shocked, as Scrawny McGee (AKA me) carries the big, muscular looking guy over to the side of the arena/plaza, and sets him down gently.

"Eri has won the match, next up is Pockle versus Hanzo, can you fight Hanzo? We can always start on the other bracket side," Beans announces, but Hanzo shakes his head. "I'll fight," he says, standing up, acting like he hasn't been shot in the leg.

I walk over to Hisoka, and nod at him. "Thanks," I mutter, and he creepily grins. "I'll hope to fight you one day without your scarf on~" he says, and I roll my eyes. "Good luck with that, keep yappin ' and I'll strangle you with the ends of my scarf," I say lightly, punching him in the shoulder playfully and gently. "That would be an amusing death, headlines saying 'Master Magician killed by scarf of 12 year old,'" he says, light smile on face and I laugh.

"See you later," I say, holding up a hand and walking towards Pockle, who has already lost.

"Good luck with Killua, Pockle. If you call him a kitty-cat, that's his weakness trigger word," I whisper, and he looks shocked. "Really?" He asks, and I nod.

"Thanks!" He says, and I give him the thumbs up, walking back to the sidelines where Killua is. "Killua, good luck."

"Thanks," he says, and walks to the center. "Match between Killua and Pockle, start!"

"I surrender, I'm not really interested in fighting you," Killua says confidently, walking away.

"G-get back here you scared kitty-cat!" Pockle says, and Killua stops walking, turns around and looks at Pockle.

"What did you call me?" He asks, and Pockle gulps. "I called you a scared kitty-cat!" He calls out, and I fight to hide a smirk.

Killua sighs, and turns around to fully face Pockle. "Whatever," he says, sticking up a hand with claws sharpening.

In a blur, Killua is behind Pockle, and Pockle's pants fall down. I laugh slightly with everyone else, as a flustered Pockle attempted to pull them up, but the moment he touched his pants they turned into confetti shreds.

"I still surrender," Killua says, and walks away from an embarrassed Pockle.

Next up was Illumi versus Killua, and this scene majorly pissed me off to read and watch in the anime. "Can I go to the restroom?" I ask, and Netero nods as I leave the room.

I slouch against the hallway's wall, sliding down the wall. I was exhausted, physically and mentally. I remember something about Ging's dad saying there was more to the world than the 5 continents, maybe my galaxy was somehow connected to the world? I could easily hop portals, I might have arrived somewhere on this planet, than from there it placed me where I met Gon.

And even if I'm stuck here, do I really want to masquerade as a boy, with my scarf serving as a mask? I can easily be recognized wherever I go if I make a name for myself, and if it's hot outside I want to breathe...

I unravel it slightly, holding the end. It starts glowing, and I take it off. Now, it's completely silver and emitting white light, and in my hands it turns into a navy blue cloak, with the same pattern as the scarf, except at near the bottom if different patterns of constellations. Such as Leo, the lion, or Aries, the ram. The cloak reaches down to my feet, and The hood is the same, except it looks like I can pull up a mask to cover my mouth and nose, and other than just constellations there's different stars all over it. "Sweet!" I say, holding the cloak up. It's light weight material, and looks like it can protect me well. "Well, transform back into a scarf for now, I'll use the cloak form later," I say, and the cloak glows and turns back into a scarf. I wrap it around my head, and head back into the room, and I suddenly feel warm and...sticky.

I look up, and see Killua with the murder look in his eyes, as he drops his fist from Bodoro's back, as blood spurts from his wound and unto the floor, and me...

"Killua Zoldyk is no longer able to participate in the Hunter Exams for the murder of a fellow competitor," Netero asks, but Killua is just looking at the floor, blood dripping from his claws, before he looks up at me. His eyes are hollow, and have no life in them.

"Killua, wake up, and face the facts," I say, slowly walking towards him. "I don't have a Snickers bar on me anymore, but," I give him a hug. "I hope this will do, remember you are your own person," I whisper in his ear. He just stands there as I hug him, and I rub circles into his back. "I'll support you, you just have to find me. I will be your friend if you can come to me and openly say that."

I take a step back from him, and I go back to the side lines and sit down, criss-cross-applesauce style. Killua just walked out of the room lacking emotion. I look over at Gon's eyes as they waver in shock, and I look back at where Killua stood.

"Leorio is hunter by default, since 2 people left. Let's go to the gathering ceremony now," Netero says, breaking the silence.

We all silently walk to the gathering room, and I sit by Gon, Leorio and Kurapika. Gon starts yelling at Illumi, and the scene plays out quickly.

"Come on, Eri, we're leaving," he says, standing up with Kurapika and Leorio.

"I can't go," I say, looking away. "For my own personal reasons, I trust Killua will know what to do if he remembers what I told him."

"... fine," Gon says, "I understand that. I hope we'll be able to meet up for an adventure soon! Bye friend!" He says, smiling. I give him the thumbs up, and he leaves the room.

I sigh, and rub circles into my forehead with my thumb.

"Hey, Netero, where can we find missions?" I ask, and he smirks.

"Good question, it's on our website if you enter in you license number and name. Any other questions?"

The room is silent, and Netero nods. "Good, thank you for taking the Hunter Exams!" He says, and I clap, but slowly realize I am the only one clapping so I slowly stop.

We all leave, and I walk to the balcony, and see the glimmering ocean in the distance. "Do you know if there's any bus stops nearby?" I ask aloud.

"Check yourself~" a voice says behind me, and I turn and see Hisoka. "Ha ha, very funny, coming from the clown," I say, rolling my eyes.

"What are your goals?" He asks, and I shrug. "Help others who need helping, well, you know what I mean. What about you?"

"Find opponents worthy of fighting and my time," he says, and I arch a brow. "Am I included on this list?" I say, crossing my arms.

"You need to grow a bit more, learn Nen, get experience in that," he says, patting my head. "Yeah, but listen up Hisoka. Something's about to come up where you'll get the chance for your goal, so good luck." I say, looking him in the eye. His mouth slightly opens into a smirk, and he raises his eyebrows. "Good," he says, "I look forward to that. Can you tell fortunes?"

"Nope, I just have keen senses," I say, and he nods. "Well, I'm off," I say, jumping on top of the balcony's railing. "See you on the flip side!" I say, before jumping off.

I tuck and roll down the grassy hill, and I start running through the forest until I'm dead set in the middle.

"I have some identity crisis issues..." I say, unwrapping my scarf from my head. It turns into the cloak I saw earlier, and I swish it on, pulling the hood up over my head. It is hot outside, but I suddenly feel cooler inside the cloak, which is nice. I pull up the mask over my mouth from the inside of the cloak, and it feels like it'll stay on easier. I put my backpack under the cloak, and I start running. I feel pretty cool-looking, like some awesome action star from a movie. I soon reach the end of the woods, and I see the port through the town.

I calmly walk to it, and I feel eyes on me. I draw my cloak closer to my, covering almost my whole body except my feet, which are in old tennis shoes. I look to my right, and see a clothing shop, and I walk inside.

I get a pair of flexible black combat boots, long navy blue socks, dark grey athletic leggings, and a long sleeved white shirt. I purchase a new sports bra, with some more bandages, a regular bra, and I also get an extra large brown utility belt, since it was the only one left, and I have to wrap it twice around my waist for it to fit, but the second loop around hangs off my hip. I get a brown messenger bag too, which I'll use to put whatever utilities I can't summon in it. I put the book, my old hunter pin, tampons, pads, a hairbrush, hairbands, toothbrush with toothpaste. I take a handful of grass, and shove it into one of the pockets on my utility belt. I took only one scythe, and put that on my utility belt.I was about to put my pocket watch in my messenger bag, but I notice there's a little pouch just big enough to hook my pocket watch too, and where I can put it in.

I change in the backroom, leaving my old clothes behind, before walking out of the shop and heading to the port.

"Give me a damn ride on your ship!" I hear a voice say, and I see a little blonde girl yelling at a sailor.

"I-I can't give rides to minors without parents," he says, and I walk up. "She's not a minor, she's my mom, and she wants to take us both on a family vacation, duh," I say, showing the scythe in my belt from the trick tower.

"O-oh, please, welcome aboard," he says, moving aside to let us both on to the ship.

"Who are you?" The girl asks, and I smile. "Call me Eri, you?"

"Biscuit Krueger, but call me Bisky."

"Sweet, are you also a Hunter?" I ask, and she stops walking. "How did you know?" She asks, and I look back at her, shrugging. "You don't seem to have the maturity of a little girl, you seem more refined. From the slight muscles, you look to have worked around before, and your Hunter's license is also poking out of your pocket slightly," I say, pointing towards her pocket with the license poking out. She hastily shoves it in, and looks at me. "Did you just finish your exams?" She asks, and I nod.

"I just need to learn Nen now, but I don't know how..." I say, hoping she'll get the hint.

"Alright, I'll teach you, but you have to show me your face, I don't want to be teaching a criminal Nen," she says, and I nod.

"I understand, but I'll do it once we get on the ship."

We walk to the ship, which is apparently going to the continent Minbo, and they give us a room to bunk in alone, and we sit down on the floor across from each other.

"First things first, the basics on how we will open up your aura. One typically learns this process slowly and gradually through meditation. The second method, called Initiation, is by having the student receiving a bunch of aura from an experienced user that forces these nodes to open; despite how quickly it works, the method is typically frowned upon due to its danger to the student if the user is inexperienced or has malicious intent, so let's say if I don't like you, you can easily die. Which option do you wish to take?"

"I want to do the second," I say, and she nods. I take off my cloak, and remove the lower mask from my face. Biscuit's eyes widen, "You're a girl?" She asks, and I nod, running my fingers through my hair.

"Stand up, turn around so your back is to me," she says, and I oblige, as she puts her hand on my back. The moment her hand makes contact with my back, I feel as if a million fire ants just started spazzing all over my skin, and topped with a lava frosting. I arch my back, and let out a silent scream.

The moment it started, it was over, and I double over, breathing heavily.

"Every single micropyle on your body has opened," she lectures, "look at your hand."

I look at my hand, and a thick, white looking thing floats off my hand, and almost reaches the ceiling.

"This is your aura. Pretty cool, right? She asls, and I nod, looking at my hand in awe. "Because of my awakening you, you can see the aura because of the nodes in your eyes opening."

"That's pretty cool, Miss Krueger," I say, and she lightly slaps my arm. "HEy! What was that for?" I ask, and she shakes her head. "Call me Bisky, or I'll feel older than I am. I'm 57, and look fa-bu-lous!" She says with a twirl.

"You do look great for your age," I say, and she smiles. "Now, imagine this giant white steam is more compacted to your body, imagine it flowing like blood through your veins, pumping life forces into your veins." I close my eyes, and imagine doing as she says, and I open my eyes to see the aura is thicker and whiter, but less is floating around me and it's compacted to my body.

"This is your Ten," she says with a smile. "Good job on mastering it. Now, switch between Ten and your full sized Nen every 30 seconds for 3 hours."

"What?!" I ask, and she shrugs. "Training," she says, pulling out a magazine. "Once you've mastered this, we'll continue. I want you to be able to hold this form subconsciously, which will serve your best interests."

I nod, and she points at my cloak. "Best if you take off your cloak and any other un-necessary materials, it may get hot and sweaty in some spots." She turns around, and I take off my cloak, before taking off my shirt and taking off my bindings, putting on a regular bra, before putting on my shirt again. I untuck my amulet from my shirt, and adjust my bracelet around my wrist, I wonder what my father is doing right now...

"I'm ready to start," I say, and she pulls out a timer, and turns around to face me. "Start now," she says, and I release my aura, so it flows freely around me. When I see the thirty second mark hit, I compact it, and I continue this for almost 2 hours easily.

At the two hour mark, I start to sweat, but I continue the training until the timer dings, and I release my aura. I fall to the ground, breathing heavily.

"You're done? First try?" She asks, and I nod. "It's about 3:00, I'll go easy on you today and let you rest for an hour."

"Thanks," I mutter, falling asleep on the floor. The last thing I see is her smirking at my state.

I wake up, feeling energetic and relaxed at the same time. "Best sleep I've had in a while," I say, standing up from the ground and stretching. "It's four now, let's continue," Bisky says, and I nod. "The next technique is Zetsu, and it's closing off all aura nodes so not to let any leak, like turning off a water faucet. It makes you more sensitive to other's auras, which is good and bad. Good, because you can sense them easily, but bad because a weakly enhanced Nen attack can cause serious damage. If you can show me you can do it on the first try, I won't make you practice over and over."

"Okay!" I say cheerfully, and I have a small flashback to when I was on the island, where I remember hiding my presence through mentally putting myself in the treasure chest. I close my eyes, and imagine myself going into the treasure chest with my aura, and I take a mental key, locking the chest close.

Opening my eyes, I see my aura is no longer surrounding me, and I slightly frown. It felt like a warm blanket.

"Wow! That was easy! Now, let's start on the 3rd principle of Nen, which is Ren. Basically, if Ten is used for defense, than Ren is used for offense, it's like a surge of strength. It focuses on taking a high amount of Nen and keeping it on the body, where you can enlarge the size of it without losing it. But, it may be tiring.

"Let's start! How do I do it?" I ask, and Bisky nods. "This ability is crucial for you expanding your power, so release to your original Nen when we first started."

I imagine the treasure chest opening up, and my thick white aura comes up from my body again, rising like steam. "Now, enforce your will into your aura. Will it to be stronger, and force it to be strong! Any position will work best for different people."

"Yes Bisky," I say, holding my hands together in the prayer shape. I press my palms hard together, and I close my eyes.

I reach out to my aura in my mind, and I imagine taking my hands and pressing as hard as I can with it. I feel a rush of power around my eyes, and see the rush of aura around me.

"Now, for a side technique, focus the aura on your eyes, this is called Gyo," Bisky says, as I feel a bead of sweat drip down my temple. I nod, and imagine shoving the aura towards my eyes. Bisky holds up a finger, "What number am I holding up?" She says. "9!" I say, and she nods. "You were a split second too late, do 100 pushups!"

I revert back to Ten, and imagine by goal is to complete 100 pushups within 2 minutes. I get into the pushup position, and I let my aura surround me. I do a pushup quickly, this was easy with Nen! I do the 99 others easily, and I stand up again.

"Now, you will hold your Ten for 4 hours, non-stop," she says, and my jaw drops.

"That sounds really hard!" I say, and she nods. "It is until you master Ten, now it takes 30 days to get to Minbo using the trade route on this ship, so before those 30 days are over, I want you to be able to hold Ten for four hours, or else I won't take you on as a student."

I sigh, and nod. "I understand," I say, and she nods. "Good, now, I'm going to ask you some questions. What kind of Hunter do you wish to be?"

I think for a moment, before shrugging. "I wanna see the world and help people, discover new things, beat up the criminals, basically a bunch of stuff."

"Have you considered being a contract Hunter?" She says, and I nod. "But I don't want to work for people, I want to be self serving. If I chose to work for someone, that is my choice, and I'll decide what I do and don't do. I could be choosy with who I make a contract for, but I honestly don't care if I earn money or not."

"Well, it's never too late to chose," Bisky says, before standing up and brushing off her dress. "Let's hit the dining hall and get something to eat." I nod, and pick up my cloak, draping it over me. I put up the hood and mask, my chest doesn't show through the cloak. I close my eyes for a moment, and use my Ten to hide my Nen.

We walk out onto the deck, and I squint up at the bright sun. I sniff the air, and it smells like ozone. The clouds are cumulus, so it will rain later tonight or in the morning. "It's going to rain," I mumble, and Bisky nods. "Yeah," she says, "the clouds are light though, so it won't be too bad."

"One moment," I say, reaching into my utility belt's pocket and taking out a blade of grass. I throw it up into the air, and it blows to my right a few feet. "Eastern wind, a storm is coming, and coming soon. Let's hit the dining hall," I mumble, walking to the direction of the dining hall. We eat in there for 20 minutes, munching on bland porridge with a side of an apple, before we go back to our bunk.

"It's 5:30, we start training in the morning at 6:00," Bisky says, "I also get bottom bunk!"

"People usually want the top," I say, and she laughs. "I can have more space on bottom for my stuff, and you're light weight enough to not creak, so."

I take off my shoes, putting them next to the door, and I climb to the top of the bunk. I close my eyes, and sit Indian style, and I meditate.

I feel as if a warm, blanket surrounds me, and I open my eyes to see my aura flowing around me. It looks stronger, but not as strong as Ren. It flows almost as if it's a river. I shut my eyes again, relaxing and I continue to meditate.

I open my eyes, what feels like 5 minutes later, but when I check my pocket watch it says it's 9' o clock!

To make sure I can master holding Ren for 4 hours, I need practice. I set my pocket watch on my pillow, and wait for it to hit 9:05, and when it does I start using Ren.

I hold it for an hour easily, but than I start sweating and let go of it at 1 hour and 30 minutes, so there's definitely room to improve. I put my pocketwatch back in my cloak, and the moment I hit the pillow I fall asleep.

~Le Week Later~

I've been practicing every night before bed, and every day with Bisky watching my Ren. A week after arriving on the ship, I'm now able to hold it for 3 hours and 30 minutes without breaking a sweat, which is a ridiculously long time.

"Time for you to do your Ren, what number am I holding up?" She asks quickly, and I look at her hand with Gyo. "3," I say, and she nods. "You're improving quickly, which is very good. Ren!" She says, and I put my hands together and start. For 3 hours, Bisky converses with me as I easily hold it, but after that I start focusing more as she tells me adventures she's been on before. Apparently, she is looking for a rare gem in Minbo called the Minboza Serpentina, and she showed me an image of it on her phone.

"Wow, that's really pretty!" I say, and she nods, before looking at the clock. "That's been 4 hours, but I should also tell you I made the clock go long so you've actually been doing 5 hours, hehe," she says, scratching the back of her neck. No wonder it seemed to take forever, and when I did it before bed it was easier!

"To celebrate, we are exiting the port today to go to the market while the trade ship is unloading and loading items! We'll return before tomorrow morning, but today we'll take a break before we start on the next and final stage of learning the 4 basic Nen types. Number!"

"8!" I say, and she nods. "Do you have your Hunter's License?" She asks, and I nod, pulling it out of my messenger bag. "Good, now let's go!" She says, walking out of the cabin. I check my hood, and I follow her.

We go on the deck, and I glare at the sun, it is awfully nice today.

We step off the boat, and walk into the bustling town. I follow Bisky aimlessly, as she 'oohed' and 'awhed' at things she liked.

"What continent is this?" I ask, "Bergerose, it's an island continent," she says, and I nod. "Do you have a cell phone?" She asks, walking over to the cellphone stand. "Nope," I say, walking over with her.

"Well, you need a phone! A girl has gotta go online shopping somewhere," she says, hands on hip.

"Never online shopped before," I say honestly with a shrug. "I never have really gone shopping before, except for grocery shopping."

"Well, here!" She says, passing me a beetle shaped phone. "When did you get time to buy this?" I ask, and she winks. "A girl is always master to the trade." "Well, thank you," I say, and she smiles. "Now a makeover."

"Noooooooo," I say, and she frowns. "Why not? You only dress as a guy, you could get some really cute clothes."

"I know that, but people won't take me seriously. At first, I thought you were a little girl, and as that could be an advantage if someone underestimates you, I want people to look at me and say 'I've heard of them, the great deeds they've done, and they'll put up a hellava fight."

"That's good and stuff, but you should know something. All four principles of Nen prolongs the lifespan of it's user, because you are literally surrounded by your life force as you manipulate it. Have you seen your hair? It's grown 4 inches since last week when we started." "I didn't see, because I really don't pay attention to how I look."

"Listen, I bought you a phone. A phone. So, if you want to repay me, you'll try on the clothes, please?" She says, batting her eyes.

"You are such a cute, manipulative old woman," I say with a huff, crossing my arms. "Yeah yeah, come on!" She says, dragging me to a clothing store.

It was large, white with racks of clothing. I walk through the aisles and see something I like. "Hey, is this cute?" I ask, holding up a gray shirt with a scoop neck. "No! Ew, it's on clearance too!" She says, taking it from me and putting it back on the rack. "Here, take these," she says, passing me a huge pile of clothes. "Try it on!" She says, shoving me into a dressing room.

I grudgingly put on the dress and shoes, and I gotta admit I look pretty cute. I take off my cloak, and it turns into my old scarf, but shorter, which I wrap around my head, tying it into a knot in the back. I have a purple dress on that's really flowy around me, floating about as if there's no gravity. I have some gray leggings, and pastel green ballet flats with pink ribbons going up to my knee. I also have a regular bra on, which is actually nice for once.

I walk out of the dressing room awkwardly, and Bisky claps excitedly. "Cute! I polished the rough diamond, and it shimmers brightly! Now spin!" She orders, and I teeter in a circle.

"Now, I know how you are about your equipment, so the dress has inside pockets only accessible by you. I also already paid for the whole outfit, so you're wearing it out!"

I groan, and walk back into the dressing room. I reach under my skirt, and I find the hidden pocket she was talking about, so I put my Hunter's license, my pocket watch and my cellphone in it.

I walk out, with my old clothes in my brown leather bag with my utility belt. "I'll be right out, I have to pay for my shoes!" Bisky says, holding up a pair of shoes. I nod, and step outside the shop.

It's less crowded outside, and I shiver, rubbing my bare arms. I'll wear my cloak again when I get back to the ship...

I feel a cloth cover my mouth, and I thrash as someone picks me up. My vision gets black and splotchy, and I quickly go limp.

I wake up in a cell, and I stand up, wobbling slightly. Was I kidnapped? Oh god, I'm in human trafficking... It's so dark, except for the light in a doorway...

I fumble, putting my hand around my neck, and my necklace is still there, thank god. I feel my wrist, yup, bracelet still there. I reach under my dress, and feel my phone, license, and pocket watch still there. I take my hand out of my dress, and I stretch my legs.

"Hey freak!" A gruff voice calls out, and I look up. A creepy looking guy with a pornstache is there, and he's looking at me with wide eyes. He's fat and balding, and looks very creepy...

"Gimme your necklace and bracelet!" he calls out gruffly, "I can't take it off myself!" So that's why it's still there. "Doesn't work for me, sorry sir," I say, bowing my head. "Don't shit talk me!" he says, rattling my bars. "Gimme the necklace!"

"Hey, don't mess with the slaves, we already brain damaged one," a voice calls out from behind him, and pornstache huffs, before walking out. There's others? I squint into the dark, and I see the faint outlines of other girls. I need to break everyone out of here... If I meditate, and stay in Ten mode, I can sense my surroundings better.

I close my eyes, and I sit down on the ground, crossing my legs. I can hear the chattering of men to the room across the hallway, some girls sobbing, and ocean waves crashing about 100 meters behind us, and 5 meters up. Opening my eyes, I put my hand against the brick wall, there was nothing beyond it. Judging from how the waves were crashing, it was mid-day...

I sit against the wall again, the only source of light was coming from the doorway, leading to a hallway, with stairs going upwards, so that was our way out.

I watch the guards change shifts, on my guess, for 4 hours. There were two guards, a skinny, lanky one, and a fat one. The skinny one was on a high alert, and would yell at the fat one occasionally. Whoever these guys were, they were only temporary, so I better use this to my advantage. The fat one who yelled at me had a shift every other hour, and fell asleep for 20 minutes in the first ten minutes of his shift. I unwrap my scarf from my head, and it shifts into a cloak, which I wrap around my body, and I pull up the mask.

I build up my Ten, and focus on my goal. Bust this cell door down, whoop the guard's asses, break out the other girls, get them off this island, and look really cool at the same time.

"I'll rescue the girls, and save them from this island," I whisper to myself, looking up at where the guards were, with the fat one starting to doze off. I start using Ren, and I bunch my hand into a fist, shifting 60% of my Ren to my fist, and 40% for defense. I punch the cell door, and it pops off, landing to the dirt with a soft _thump._

I focus 10% of my 40% defense to my eyes, and I see the other cell doors. There's 4 others, with about 20 girls in each. I must have been the freshest batch, that's why I have no others in my cell.

I lightly tap the cell door on my right, "move back," I whisper, and I hear some shuffling as I punch down the door, and I continue doing this until all the cell doors are down.

"Stay here," I yell whisper, and I walk into the hallway, where the fat man still slept. I hide my presence, as I reach up my dress, and pull out my compass, pushing the button. It turns into a knife, and I put my knife to the fat man's throat.

"May your God or gods be your final judge," I say, before I close my eyes, slitting his throat. I turn abruptly from him, seeing another hallway, leading to a room.

I walk stealthily to the room, where the lanky man was sitting, looking at an empty computer screen. I snuck up behind him, putting the knife to his throat.

"You'll never escape than," he laughs, and I groan. "Is it password orientated?" I ask, and I see the reflection in the computer smirk. "The lights for this whole area only work if I say 'Lights On!' and the door will only open if I say 'Open Door!'"

I hear a creaking sound, and I see from the corner of my eye all the lights in the prison cell turn on.

"May your God or gods be your final judge," I say, before slitting his throat, and I walk away.

I walk back to the cells, where the girls are. My eyes soften, as I see girls who appear to be from 8 years old to 40 in the cells, holding eachother in fear, wearing rags.

"Ladies, I am here to free you from this prison!" I call out, cloak falling over my body. "I'm a Hunter from the Hunter's Association, and I'm here to lead you to freedom!"

The girls cheer, and stand up. Some aren't wearing shoes, some have shoes with holes with toes poking out, and some have two different shoes. "Follow me!" I say, as I turn and walk up the stairs, hearing the pounding of feet behind me.

We walk up the stairs, to an iron door that was rusting, but it was open. I step through, glaring at the sun. Some more girls come out, and they all glare at the sun.

"I haven't seen the sun in years," one mutters, and my heart softens. "We are going to the ocean," I say, striding to where I hear the water's crashing waves. They all follow, and I feel a tugging on my cloak. I look down, and see a little girl wearing a brown potato sack, dirt streaked over her, leaves in her hair. "Hi there cutie, what's your name?" I ask, "I-I don't have one... I just wan-wanna know yours?"

"Call me Eridanus," I say, with a wink. "Ca-can you give me a name?" She asks, and I shake my head. "You can make your own name, want me to carry you?" I ask, and she nods, as I pick her up, giving her a piggie back ride. "I know what I want my name to be," she says, and I raise an eyebrow. "You do?" I ask, "I want my name to be Hoshi! It means little star, right?" My eyes widen at the name, but I smile at it. "That's a great name, and it does mean little star. I think you will fit it very well, Hoshi."

We arrive at the water's edge, and I turn back to the girls. There's over 100, and they're all looking up at me. Hoshi, who is 8, is the youngest, while the oldest appears to be in her 40's...

I pull off my necklace, and I think. How can I feed 100 plus girls?

"Food!" I call out, throwing the necklace in the air, and it glows white, and once it hits the ground it turns into a picnic basket.

"Eat," I say, and all the girls lunge for the basket, opening it. Inside is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but it seems there's an infinite amount, because all the girls grab at least 3...

"Did everyone grab enough?" I call out, and they all nod contently.

I grab the picnic basket, and it turns back into an amulet, which I loop back around my neck. "How did you all end up in this situation?" I ask, and they all look at each other sadly.

"We all lived in a town," the oldest says, "and it was struck by a hurricane. This was 9 years ago, and most of our husbands, brothers, fathers, were on a fishing trip at the time, and where they were fishing was hit hardest... We, the woman and girls of the tribe, went and found shelter in an unfamiliar town, and a kind man said we could join his village on a different island. We were excited, to start a new life, but it was a trap. Some of our women have been sold, some killed, and more have arrived since that day when we were put in the cells. We accept all the women who have come to us as tribe members, because they have joined us, and we are the Lost Women of Kimane. We sincerely thank you for helping us."

They all bow to me, and I shake my head. "I'll help you seek shelter somewhere safe, now, to get off this island..." I look at the edges of my cloak, an idea coming to mind.

"Ladies, back up please," I say, and they all back up. I face the sea, inhaling. I bring up my Ren, and raise my hands to the sky.

"Argo Navis!" I call out, and nothing happens at first, until I see my cloak glowing white, as the Argo Navis constellation turns black, creeping up my arms and into the Nen I summoned. I lower my hands to the sea, and I clap my hands together. It lets out a loud 'boom!'. and I release the ball of Nen I summoned.

It hovers over the sea about 10 meters from me, and the constellation begins connecting the lines, like a white sketch on colored paper. Eventually, the lines start filling in color, and the ship is transparent, before filling in completely and turning solid. I look back at the girls, and their jaws drop. "Hope you don't mind your feet getting wet," I say with a smile, before turning and wading through the water to the ship, climbing the rope to the deck.

The ship is beautiful, with different shield's and emblems displayed on the ship, and what appears to be a lion head at the front.

I look over the edge of the ship, and yawn. Creating a ship out of a constellation is pretty cool, but tiring, but I've pulled all nighters before, so this is kind of the same.

I walk over to the rope ladder, and help girls climb the ship. "One moment," I say, and I turn my back to them, reaching into my cloak, under my dress, pulling out my phone.

"Huh, not dead," I say, going to my contacts, seeing that Biscuit is already on my list. I give her a ring, and she accepts on the first ring.

"Hello? Bisky?" I ask, and I hear her inhale.

"*Eridanus Whatever-Last-Name, you better have a damn good reason for ditching me! You've been missing for a month!*" She yells at full volume, and I chuckle, pulling the phone from my ear.

"I got kidnapped, and I rescued other women from being sold into human trafficking, and a month? The sleeping drug must have been strong..." I say. "Oh, well, that's a good excuse for leaving, what are you doing now?" "I'm on a boat, trying to think of a good place to take the women to."

"What tribe are the women from?" Biscuit asks, "They call themselves the Lost Tribe of Kimane," I say, and I hear her sharply inhale. "That's a D+ mission for rescuing, pretty tough for a first time. No one's been able to find 'em. Take 'em to Whale Island, they'll be excited once they get there." "Thanks Biscuit, see you later, or eventually. B-t-dubs, I mastered Hatsu. And made the ship I'm on.

"WHAAA-" she begins, "Bye!" I say, before hanging up.

"Where are we going Eridanus?" The older woman says, and I hold her hand. "We are going to an island called Whale Island," I say, and the ship starts moving quickly.

"Wh-what's happening?" Hoshi says, and I think. "I told the ship to move, so it's moving," I say shrugging, and they all exhale in relief.

"Feel free to do whatever, I'm going to meditate to restore my energy," I say, waving towards them, heading to the captain's office, which has glass surrounding it so we can see eachother. I sit on the table there, and cross my legs, and I begin to meditate. I regain some energy, and when I open my eyes, I see we are approaching an island. I hop off the table, heading to the deck. There's some girls sitting there talking, braiding each other's hair or sleeping, and I smile. They're finally getting the freedom they deserve.

"Land ho'!" I call out, I've always wanted to say that. It sounds so cool in pirate books. "To the boating port!"

The ship smoothly glides to the port, and I see the people on the boardwalk stop and point. I would too, after all this is an unfamiliar ship. We stop at the port, and I lower a plank of wood, connecting the ship and the dock together, and I step off.

"I'm a Hunter from the Hunter's Association," I say, getting whispers from the crowd of people from the island. "I went on a rescue mission and rescued a bunch of girls from Kimane." That's when the excited talking started, and a man runs up from the crowd and infront of me. "We welcome you all to our island, where are the women?"

"Jebino!" A voice calls from behind me, and I step aside as one of the women runs past me, into the man's arms. "We thought you all died!" She cries out, burying her face into his shoulders.

"I missed you, little sister," he says, holding her close to him. "What happened?" I ask, and the man looks at me with watery eyes. "All the men of our village went on a fishing trip, and we got caught in a bad storm, but a big ship rescued all of us, and told us that the island we came from had been wrecked, and they could not find a trace of any survivors. They offered us a place to stay on Whale Island, and we all immigrated here, but now we can all be reunited, thank you mister!" He says, and I nod, before turning back and walking on to the ship. "Come on ladies, we can get off the ship!" I say, and I step to the side as all of them rush off the ship, looking for their loved ones.

I feel a tug on my cloak, and I look down and see Hoshi. "I-I don't know what my daddy looks like," she mutters, when a woman with long braided red hair steps out from behind her. "Come on daughter, let's go meet your daddy," and Hoshi grabs her hand. "Thank you," the mother says, bowing to me, and I hold up a hand. "No problem."

She walks out with Hoshi off the ship, and a raven haired man hugs the woman, before picking up Hoshi and hugging her close. Now that everyone is off the ship, I step off and look at the ship.

"Release!" I say, holding up my hand, as the ship turns transparent into it's basis constellation, and flies back on to my cloak, which glows silver for a moment, before returning to what it usually looks like. I turn and look at everyone who's staring in awe, and I smile, giving thumbs up. "All good here!" I say, and they smile.

"We're going to have a celebration tonight in town square," A man calls out from the crowd. "The women and their savior are the guests of honor!" Everyone cheers, and I put my hands over my cheeks, blushing slightly. But they can't see because of the mask.

"Please don't call me savior, its embarrassing," I say, covering my eyes as some people chuckle. "Call me Eridanus."

"Than Eridanus and the women of the Kimane are the guests!" Everyone cheers, and I slightly sweat drop, how can they plan a celebration in only a few hours?

"Please, rest at my house," a voice calls, and an elderly women appears from the crowd. She has her grey hair in a tight bun, and has a yellow scarf. She looks familiar from somewhere.

"Thank you," I say, bowing to her. "Follow me than," she says, and she walks into the crowd. I follow her, as the crowd parts like the red sea for us. We walk through the town, and start going up a hill to where a large house lay.

A woman with red hair was doing the laundry outside, and I look at her. Was that...?

"Mito, darling, please meet Eridanus. Eridanus is a Hunter that rescued a bunch of women from human trafficking," the elderly women says, shoving my forward.

"Hello," she says, turning around to face me. Yup, this was Gon's aunt. "Eridanus," I say, sticking my hand out. "Mito," she says with a smile, shaking my hand. "You are a Hunter, yes?" She asks, and I nod.

"Do you possibly go by the alibi Eri too?" She says, and I nod. "I just took the Hunter's Exam not too long ago," I say, and she smiles lightly. "I'm Gon's aunt, and he wrote all about you in his letters, and how you can make enchiladas too."

I lightly laugh, "Gon is very sweet," I say, and she smiles lightly. "Have you seen him in a while?" She asks, and I shake my head. "They left immediately after the exams were over in search for another friend, but I couldn't go with them yet." She nods, and gestures towards the door. "You can come in if you want," she says, and I nod. "Thank you, I am very tired," I say with a yawn, and I walk through. "Follow me," the older women begins, and I follow to her a room.

"I hope you don't mind sleeping in Gon's room, we have no rooms we can currently house you in," she says, and I shake my head. "No, I don't mind at all," I say, "can you please wake me up in time for the celebration? I'm afraid I may oversleep it." "Of course," she says, "you and Gon seem like the same size in terms of height, so you can borrow his clothes." She closes the door, and I exhale. I walk over to the closet, opening it up. I pull out a plain white shirt and some black sweat pants, and I look at my dress. I sigh, and reach over, ripping strips of it, before wrapping that around my chest, putting my bra on top of it.

I walk over to the dresser, looking in the mirror. My hair was now down past my boobs, and I take a hairband from my cloak, and put my hair in a messy bun, before I put my cloak back on, and I flop on to the bed, falling asleep instantly.

I wake up to the grandma shaking me. "Sorry," I say, sitting up and rubbing my eyes.

"Don't worry about it Eridanus," she says, and I shake my head. "You can call me Eri, a friend of Gon's is a friend of mine," I say, standing up. "What month is it, by the by?" I ask.

"It's April, April 23rd to be exact," she says, and I think. Gon and Killua have been reunited by now, so then that must mean Gon is about to fight Hisoka in a few days.

"Do you have a pen and some paper?" I ask, and she nods. "One moment, please," she says, before hobbling away. I pull out my phone, texting Bisky where she is. She replies that she's collected the jewel, and she's taking a private speedboat is to pick me up, and will be here tonight at midnight.

"Here it is," the older woman says, passing me ten pieces of paper and a pen. "Use as much as you want," she says, "we'll be waiting downstairs to go to the party."

She turns around and walks away, and I set two pieces of paper aside from 8. I start writing 2 letter to Gon and Killua, using two pieces of paper per each of them, and instead of a signature I drew the constellation dots for Eridanus. Hehe, I'm so artsy. I take the two pieces I set aside, and used some sweet origami skills to turn them into envelopes, and I wrote their names on both of them, before I set it underneath the tape recorder. They'll find it soon.

I walk downstairs with the excess paper and pen, giving them to the grandma, and we all walk to the celebration.

It was really nice, with strung lantern lights in the town square. I could smell delicious food in the air, and someone gave me a flower crown which I put on top of my head. I danced with girls, women, men, children, the elderly, and with a dog in my arms.

When the crowd was clearing out, I walked to the port and saw a speedboat there with a person on it.

"Bisky?" I ask, and she waves her hand at me. "Hello Eri!" She says, and I run to the boat, flower crown falling off, and I jump on to it.

"Floor it!" I shout, buckling my seatbelt, and Bisky starts the boat and we go off into the ocean.

"How was the jewel hunt?" I ask. "Great, I got it and added it to my collection. How did you learn Hatsu?" She asks.

"I just mashed it all together, and did what I wanted. The way I made the ship too was by taking the constellation called Argo Navis on my cloak, and I summoned it and made it physical.

"Damn, that sounds hard. When we get somewhere, we'll see what Nen type you are, I'm thinking you might be a Manipulator or a Specialist..."

"So, what's the plan?" I ask.

"We're going to continue your training in Nen, while I take you on an adventure, a requested expedition for me and one other person by the Hunter's Association, and I want you to be my one plus."

Ahhhh! Greed Island Arc was so exciting, I can't wait to experience it! "Heckle yeah!" I say, pumping my fist in the air.

"We'll be entering the game on August 30th, so until than we can do whatever we want, including you doing more training. I'm going to drop you off on an island for a few months, until July 30th, and you'll learn some martial arts, and Nen. Of course, no one can teach Nen like me, but it'll strengthen you and help you perfect your techniques. Does that work?"

"Yup," I say, putting my hand in my pocket. "Does this martial arts island accept chicks?"  
"Yes," she says. "Works for me," I say, taking my hand out of my pocket. I was going to summon my knife to cut my hair, but it's not necessary now.

"Than, I'll be going as a girl," I say, pulling out my pocket watch, before taking off my cloak as it turns into a shorter version of the scarf. I tie it around my head , and I fiddle with my hair in it's messy bun. "I'll probably chop it off later," I say, and Bisky shrugs. "You do you," she says, "your clothes are pretty un-cute, I got another copy of the outfit you had on earlier, except it's more durable, shoes have more traction, leggings can stretch more, etc."

"You're amazing at that," I say, shaking my head in disbelief.

"Yeah yeah, I know it's pretty odd, but I have my ways, it's in the messenger bag you dropped when kidnapped, o'er there," she says, pointing to the chair behind me, where my messenger bag is. I unbuckle, and swivel the chair around. I take off my shirt, and unwrap the scrap bindings, leaving me behind in a regular bra. I put on the dress, and take off the sweatpants, putting on the leggings and shoes.

"There's more pockets in there for stuff too," she says, and I nod, putting my phone and pocketwatch on the inside of the dress. "Thanks," I say, re-adjusting my scarf to make sure it fits.

"We're here," she says, and I turn my chair around to see a tall island with many hills. "Wow," I say, "is this where I'm training?"

"Yup, it's an off-map island, so it could be considered a...Bermanda Trangle?" I'm pretty sure it's Bermuda, but it must be different in this world, so I just nod in agreement.

We pull up to the boating dock, and I hop off the boat, messenger bag in tow.

"They'll see what type of Nen user you are here, and make sure to write me! Just write 'Biscuit Krueger' on the envelope, and they'll know who to give it to."

"I'll miss you Bisky!" I say, and she smiles. "I enrolled you here under the name Hoshi, I hope you don't mind? It's the first name I could think of." She asks, and I beam. "Nope, not one bit," I say, before turning around and facing the massive hills of the island. I think I'm ready.

* * *

Hey guys, so I plan on doing a .5 of a chapter since school is starting this week, and updates may be slower :/ please favorite, review and like or whatever this story! I will answer questions sent to me in the PM box or on the review.


	4. Training x and x Fite Me

This chapter's beginning will be focusing on all the characters, and what's going on. So it'll be in mostly 3rd person.

* * *

On a small island called "Whale Island", for, well, its shape, a boy accompanied by his friend comes running up a hill, to greet his aunt he hasn't seen in months.

"Aunt! Aunt Mito!" He calls out, running up the hill followed by his friend who is coolly walking up the hill, his hands in pocket.

"Gon!" The aunt of the boy calls out, and he runs up quickly, enveloping her in a hug.

They have a feast that night, as the two young boys recall their adventure to Gon's relatives, before Gon receives a box from his aunt. "It's from your father."

The boys rush to Gon's room, and open the door. Inside, it looks exactly the same as Gon left it, the bed is neatly made, and everything is in its place.

"There's a tape in here, do you have a tape recorder?" The second boy asks, who is the friend of Gon.

"Yeah, Killua, over there," Gon says, pointing in the direction of the tape recorder, not tearing his gaze away from the box.

What is presumably the boy's name, Killua walks to where the tape recorder is, and picks it up. It looks like an average tape recorder, but under it is two letters. One addressed to Gon, and another to him, Killua.

"Uh, Gon, look at this," Killua calls out to Gon, and Gon walks over. "Who's the letters from?" Gon asks, and Killua shrugs, before picking up his letter and opening it, and Gon follows suit.

Gon scans over the letter, and when he reaches the bottom of the letter he's confused, who is it from?

 _'Dear Gon,'_

 _'Don't worry, this letter is from a friend. Forgive me if there's spelling errors, my hands are pretty shaky right now. Well, after we last met up, I had my own adventure, and it was pretty thrilling. Too thrilling, being held captive is not fun, even if for a few minutes. Or months, I was only awake for a few minutes, honestly. How is learning Nen going? Well, you can't send me a reply, but tell me your answer when we see each other again. I saw Hisoka and your battle on television, nice punch! I'm glad you finally obtained your goal of giving back the pin to him, I'm proud of you. He's creepy, yet a very, VERY strong clown. But, keep him in mind for the future, he may be an useful ally. Just sayin'._

 _Well, this is the part of the letter where I talk about me. Like I said, I was held captive for about a month, but they must have used a pretty strong drug because it knocked me out for a while. I rescued some girls along the way, which was great, so there may be some unfamiliar faces around the island. I started learning Nen right after we parted, and I have a really, really cool technique._

 _Hope we reunite soon! -'_

Gon attempted to read what it said, but it looked to be like a bunch of dots. What is this?

He looks over at Killua, who is reading his letter with wide eyes.

 _'Dear Killua,'_

 _'I want us to be reunited again, as friends and go on some epic adventure. That'd be really nice, you don't show your emotions a lot unless with Gon, and I want us to be friends like that. Before you fled the scene, I asked you to find me, right? While Gon is on his wild goose chase for his father, you can find me. I'm wherever the wind blows most though, wherever action is. Call me Pocahontas, if you will, I go with the wind. Eh, you probably don't get that reference, so ignore it._

 _You'll probably find me soon, because I plan on somehow getting into G.I, so we'll probably meet up there. So, good luck on getting in! Practice your Nen more, you need to get jacked for what's coming towards you. Also, your brother Illumi is a dick. Just sayin'._

 _Now, time to talk about me! I was captured, drugged for a month, but I rescued a bunch of girls from an island, so they're now here! Exciting, right? After you left, I left about a day later to train in Nen by a great master. They're pretty...eh, great? It's hard to describe my master, I guess I can say they're...cute?_

 _Anyway, I hope you find me soon! When you do, you owe me a lunch, hehe. -'_

Killua looked at the weird dots following the closing, what were those supposed to be?

"What's with the dots?" Gon asks, "Is it a code?"

"I don't know, but how did the letters get here?" Killua asks, and Gon sniffs the air.

"It smells faintly of Eri, like he was here not too long ago. Eri smells like... blueberries and dark chocolate, with some sweat and ocean." Gon says, and Killua's eyes widen. "Isn't Eridanus a constellation?" Killua asks, and Gon shrugs. "I'm not into scholarly stuff, hehe," Gon admits, scratching the back of his head nervously.

Killua goes to the computer in Gon's room, and goes on schmoogle. He types in 'eridanus constellation,' and images pop up of the constellation. Killua looks at his letter's signature, and the dots are in the same position.

The boys look at each other, and run down the stairs to where Aunt Mito was reading a book. "Mito-san! Mito-san! Did anyone visit while I was gone?" Gon asks, and Mito nods.

"Yes, a boy, about your age, came wearing a cloak, so only his eyes showed," Mito recalls, and the boys' eyes widen. Eri must have traded out the scarf for a cloak. "What color were his eyes?" Killua asks, like he wasn't interested, but he actually was.

"Hmmm...like a grey? He said his name was Eridanus, and he mentioned you guys were in the Hunter exams together. I remember that from your letters, Gon." Mito says, and their eyes widen. So, Eri really was here.

"When did he leave?" Gon asks. "About 2 days ago," Mito recalls. "He says 'hi' to you both, too."

The boys jaws drop in disbelief. So, Eri was here! They both knew that they'll find Eri...eventually. But the real question was, how did they know they were both going to be here?

* * *

"Osu!" I say, bowing to my sensei. I've been on the island for a month now, and I've been training non-stop. I'm the only kid, and girl here. It's mostly people in their mid-forties, but there's in in his 30's. I ignore them, I'm not here to make friends with older people, I'm here to train and get stronger! They're all training to be ninjas, but none of them are going to become a Hunter. I just said I'm training to be a ninja, too, and they laughed. Screw them, I'm the one who's a Hunter. My hair was now past my shoulders, in two twin braids.

My Nen had gotten pretty strong, and I had mastered most of the techniques. I guess you could say I'm a fast learner...hehe. We had to choose two martial arts to work on, and I chose Aikido, and what's called Barabrin Ju-Jitsu, but it's actually Brazillian Ju-Jistsu. Odd combination, since Aikido is an art that a person could use to defend themselves, without causing injury to their attackers. Of course, the way they taught it to me was pressure points, locking the joints, and flowing with the attacker. It was easy enough, and Barabrin Ju-Jitsu was harder, because martial artists are taught vicious and aggressive moves such as eye gouging, choke holds, biting, grappling, hard striking, etc. Once an attacker is brought to the ground, the first step is to grab a limb and manipulate it at the joint until it breaks. After the attacker is immobilized, the martial artist can unleash an arsenal of fists and elbows to the face. (Site for info: top-10-martial-arts/) Of course, I was taught karate too, along with fencing and defensive moves. I plan on only using Barabrin on deadly enemies, and I'll mix it with other techniques.

Sensei told me I'm probably the most deadly of the lot, which is 10 other people.

We each have our own sensei, and I was given the toughest one, I guess you could say. I figured the master of this dojo wanted to eliminate people who wouldn't try, but he ended up scaring 5 of the 10 other people away. Oh well. They had to replace my sensei, which is probably why I got the tough old guy.

Our schedule was awfully boring, at 4:00 in the morning, I got up and held my Ten for 5 hours, until 9:00 when I had breakfast, and I than practiced 9:00-1:00 Aikido (with Nen), 1:05-4:05 Barabrin, 4:10-6:10 Fencing and Karate, and I had 20 minutes for dinner, than we meditated until 8:10, and I proceeded to hold my Ten for another hour, before I was in bed at 9:30. My sensei is a specialist, and has Nen healing powers, so he heals me each night so I'm not physically dead the next day.

My Nen type, you ask? Well...*flashback time!*

"This is how we see which Nen you are," my first sensei says, taking a glass of water with a small leaf floating on top. I nod towards him, and put my hands over the sides of the glass, and I focus my nen into my hands.

I watch as the leaf starts moving around the glass. "I guess you're a mani-" Ny old Sensei starts, and the leaf flies out of the glass, and more leaves appear from the water's surface. "What the?!" He asks, as the water's surface has more leaves spiraling out of the cup into the air.

In a funnel shape, leaves are swirling around in the air. "Am I a manipulator?" I ask, but his eyes are still wide.

"Devil's child! This has never happened before!" He says, "Well, I'll just assume I'm a mix of a manipulator and a specialist, thank you!" I say with a bow, but his eyes are still wide.

"I'm out!" He says, before running from the room. I haven't seen him in a while since then.

*bye bye flashback*

I haven't put on my cloak for a while, so I've had to develop new, special moves. I have a few, each of them correlating with a different Nen type. For Enhancing, I enhance my attacks, which is pretty average, but works well. I loved One-punch Man, so one of my mega-enhanced punches will completely destroy my target, but that's if I have killing intent, which I usually don't have.

For Emitting, I figured out that I can wrap my Nen around my sword and the pointy star on it's tip, then release the star on the sword if I release it like a boomerang, and with my Nen it'll come back to me. But for using Emitting completely, I make little balls of Nen, and I release it at my target. I decided to call this ability 'Meteor Shower', and the boomerang star 'Shooting Star,' pretty clever, right? If I warp my aura, I can form small stars and throw them, like ninja stars, but they can change size and float, and I can flick them with my fingers, OR MY MIND! I call these small stars 'Lyra Launchers,' because Lyra is the brightest star in the sky, which is also pretty cool. The difference between Meteor Shower and Lyra Launchers, is Meteor Shower is a random attack pattern, and I control the Lyra Launchers.

For Conjuring, I figured out that I already have been using Conjuring with my amulet and pocket watch, but I was able to use it for a while now, before I learned Nen, so how does it happen? So one day, I was bored, and I activated my amulet, while using Gyo, and I saw that my amulet and pocket watch have the ability to transform because it _draws off the power of nearby auras._ Essentially, I'm sucking away some of their Nen...which makes me feel very creepy and vampirey. It doesn't suck up mine though, which is even odder.

My Transmuter likeliness is the ability to mimic my aura into something else, so to fit into the star theme, my aura mimics a burning hot star, which I can fire at my enemy! But, I have to charge it up before I use it, so I won't be completely exhausted. This is called 'Burning Star', and this is my weakest ability, I could say, because I'm too lazy to practice.

My Manipulating abilities are my strongest, which is when I'm wearing my cloak. I consider this my specialist ability, because of the Nen test, but it has Manipulating attributes, but unlike manipulators it actually solidifies. But, since I don't wear a cloak currently, I'm just practicing, in my dreams. It's odd, but since I do Nen daily, I can't help imagine that might be why I'm dreaming about it too. The constellations can shift if I force them to, than I can summon the ones I want at will, which works pretty well, and only I can wear the cloak, or scarf, or whatever form it is in, and only I can move it myself. If I'm doing an activity, and an outside force, like wind, moves my scarf or cloak mask, it can shift positions, but not fall off. But if a person tried removing it, they wouldn't be able to.

I have figured out the 3 rules that I must follow while wearing the cloak and using the constellations.

1) The better, mental state I'm in, when I'm at a neutral, peaceful peak in my emotions, my constellations will be more steady. Which explains why the ship I created was able to sail by itself when I was meditating, because I had a neutral state of emotions.

2) I must use the constellation I summon, before it'll go away, but I can use it as many times as I want before it returns.

3 It must be an existing constellation.

I figure my specialist abilities are actually all these abilities, since they all relate. In the future, I may make up some more attack abilities, but for now these will work well.

* * *

Two months of training later, I was jacked. I had muscles, I'm a master at Barabin, Aikido, fencing, karate, Nen, etc. I have achieved the basic mastery, and all that's left is to have real-world experiences! And that means, meeting up with Biscuit and entering the game, Greed Island! Ahh, this is so exciting!

I walk to the port where I came from originally, and look up back at the hills. I'll come back one day, and thank my sensei formally. I turn back to where Biscuit was in the boat, and I smile at her.

I'm wearing the dress I came in, with my hair now down past my butt in two twin braids, meaning it's probably down to my knees. "Wow, your hair is looooong," she says, and I roll my eyes. "It's so itchy, can I cut it off?" I ask, and she sighs. "But, it's so pretty! Just donate the hair," she says, but I cross my arms. "I'll cut it myself. But I'll donate."

"Fine, get in the boat." She says with a small laugh, and I cheer. "One moment," I say, taking off my headband.

"Oh come on, really?" She asks, and I nod. "I've practiced in my dreams, I promise I didn't wear it all irl though," I say, and I shake the headband as it turns into a cloak in my fingers, me pinching the hood.

"Ahh!" I say in happiness, putting the cloak over me, pulling the mask up over my mouth and nose. The cloak is still as warm and comfy as I remember, feeling like my bed at home, and I tuck the braids behind my head.

"I haven't been in a proper bed in months!" I say dramatically, skipping to the boat. "It's exhausting."

"Yeah, I trained at the same place before, I knew, mats are the worst. Not good for muscles, which may explain why I have the Nen power I do..." Biscuit says.

"What's your power?" I ask, even though I know.

"I can summon several Nen masseuses that involve the mixture of Emission, Manipulation and Transmutation," she states. "I can see that you have used multiple Nen types, how?" I shrug, "I just kinda roll with it, and I set my mind at ease." "Oh well, we're going to the Hunter's Association HQ, and we'll be given a private wing for us to play the game," she says, and I nod. "Once we get there, we'll enter a room where we'll stay. Apparently, if we die in-game, we die in real."

"Eh, that's fine by me. We know the risk by doing this, right?" I ask, and Biscuit nods.

She tells me about her adventure, and I listen, inputting occasionally. I raise my fingers, and form Lyra Launchers in between my fingers, and I shift them quickly in between my fingers, shifting my fingers to correspond. Like how the planets revolve around the sun, they all follow patterns.

"Number?" She asks, and I turn all the Lyra Launchers into 1's, and I continue to swivel them around my fingers without missing a beat. I look at her, and she smirks. "Nice technique," she says, before she slows down the boat and we get off at a dock.

"Let's go," I say, hopping out of the boat. She hops out, and walks toward the tall building we're in front of. We walk in, and bald security guards bow respectively. We nod, before going into the elevator.

"Hello, Beans," I say, nodding to the small, frog? Bean? in the elevator. "Hello Eridanus, Biscuit, I have your rings right here," he says, pulling out 2 pouches, passing one to each.

"Inside is the mission debrief, and you can enter and leave whenever you so feel," he says, with a bow, as the elevator dings and we step off.

Inside is a large, empty studio, with two orange couches opposite of each other, with a table in the middle. I see a door in the corner, it must be for the bathroom. On the table, there's the game cube, with a computer attached.

"Nice place," I say, throwing my bag next to a couch, before jumping on. I take out the pouch, opening it up. Inside is a silver band, with 3 green stones.

"Ugh, this messes up my character's color scheme," I say, slipping it on my middle finger, where it quickly flashes a bright green, before fading. Biscuit follows suit, and nods. "The mission," she says, pulling out the paper, "is to reduce the amount of casualties as much as possible, and make sure someone completes the game with good intentions. Or, we do it ourselves, completing the game, that is."

"Why can't they have negative intentions?" I ask, slinging my arm around the couch.

"Because, once you complete the game, the prize is to bring 3 cards into the real world..." she says, looking over the debriefing statement. "Also, some Jenny gazillionare is giving 50 billion Jenny to people who are going to complete the game...someone can do a lot of damage with that money."

"This is a Nen based game, obviously," I say, quickly using Gyo, looking at the game cube. It has a small, shroud of aura surrounding it. "So, only users who have awakened Nens can enter the game."

"Bingo, which is probably why the Jenny gazillionare is hiring people," Biscuit says, nodding in agreement. "What ranked mission is this?" I ask, and Biscuit flips through the debriefing packet.

"D+ rank, if we complete the game, D- rank, making sure someone with good intentions completes the game. Stays the same for reducing the casualties. D if we participate in helping other people complete the game. About 102,964,500.00, overall."

My eyes widen, and I convert in my head. That's about 1 million USD! (A/n-I'm using yen for Hunter estimates, kind of like the series). "Yeah, that's a lot. Are you ready to enter?" She asks, and I nod. "Ooh! First, I need a potty break!" I say, and she sighs.

"Fine," she says, and I nod gleefully, before rushing to the bathroom with my messenger bag, and I take off my amulet. I've practiced making non-food items, so I can now make tampons and pads appear when it's my time of the month. I've always been irregular...but I feel it coming now. It's been almost 2 months since my last cycle... Setting the amulet on the counter, I go to the bathroom, and wash my hands. I pick up the amulet, pressing the sapphire in the middle, and a bowl of tampons appear, and I grab one, do the do, grab a handful, setting them on the counter and release the amulet back to normal, before putting it back on. I take my hair, and unbraid it. When it's not in the two twin braids, it's by the back of my knee, and it starts to turn pink mid-back. I look like a freaking Rapunzel! I put my hair into a high ponytail, I braid it from there, and I wrap the braid around into a giant bun, before I pin it.

I open my messenger bag, putting the rest of the tampons in, and I see what else I packed. I have my sweat pants and tshirt from Gon still in there...why not. I put them on, and I look at my ankles which are showing. I must have grown a few inches in the past month, since these were below my ankle last time. I shrug, before I step out of the bathroom, putting the cloak over me.

"Let's go!" I say cheerfully, jumping on to the couch. "So, according to the packet," Biscuit says, "our inserts are in the packet."

I pull out the packet, and take out a small card inside of it. "I'll go first," I say, plugging it into the card slot, turning my Nen on. I zoom out, fading into blackness for a moment, before my surroundings change. I look around, and I'm in a techno room. The twin explains the rules, but I kind of zone out because I've watched this scene over and over to understand the rules...

"Got it?" She asks, and I nod. "Good, what would you like to set your name as?"

 _Don't say Shrek Don't say Shrek Don't say Shr-_ "Can I set my name as Eridanus?" I ask, and she nods. "It is inputted! Any requests before I send you off?"

"Um, these three players, named Hisoka, Gon and Killua will join the game soon," I explain. "When I run into them, instead of seeing my name as Eridanus, can you set it where they see it as Ramen Lover #1?"

"... okay..." she says, typing something into the computer. "May I ask why?" she asks. "To mess with them. Thank you, I am ready to go!" I say, and she smiles. "Good luck!" She says, before sending me down a set of staircases, and to the outside. I squint at the sun, and look around me. There's a beautiful field, with small hills in the distance.

I sit by the staircases, and recollect my information. In the manga and anime, Biscuit got into the game by the gazillionare, so how did the Hunter's Association get a copy of the game with 2 disks for us to play? Did I create a ripple somewhere, causing events to change slightly? If I meet up with Gon and Killua, with Biscuit along with me in the same situation, the manga/anime will be on the same track as it was on.

I hear steps, and I look at Biscuit coming down the stairs. "Let's look for a town, and get something to eat, I have only eaten rice and bananas for the past few months," I say, putting my hand over my stomach as it growls.

"Yeah, let's go in the direction of...those trees," Biscuit says, pointing at some trees. I nod, and we set off in that direction.

We set off, making small talk, when we arrive at the village. "Antokiba, the village of...prizes?" I ask, and we step into the village. There's a bunch of boards everywhere, and I look at the board.

"Monthly tournaments, and there's a fencing one in an hour!" I say excitedly, looking at Biscuit. "Fine by me," she says with a shrug. "Yes!" I cheer, and I head to the arena in the center of the town.

When I arrive, I see a bunch of men there, all seeming to ooze confidence. I roll my eyes, I got this in the Gucci bag.

There's about 50 of us, and we all sit on one side, while spectators sit on another side. There's few, with Biscuit being one, as she lazily flips through magazines.

"Helllllloooo!" A man says, wearing red robes with a red fez. "Welcome to the fencing tourney! This is the bracket for your fencing," he says, removing a cloth from a board that appears out of nowhere. I scan the board for my name, and I see my name near the top, and I'm fighting some person named Carrot. Who names their kid after a carrot?

"Carrot versus Eridanus is going to start us off! Please come up to the front, you two," the announcer says, and I stand up, walking to the center, where the man in red passes me a fencing sword. A man dressed in all orange, with a green hat, stands up and walks to the center.

The man in the red fez passes him the fencing sword, and the man drops the sword once in his hands. "Th-this sword is broken!" He says in a squeaky voice, and I roll my eyes. "I'll take your sword," I say, giving him my fencing sword, picking up his from the ground. I use Gyo quickly, and see that the man has surrounded some of his aura around the sword. He must be an Emitter.

"Any requests before we start the match?" Carrot asks, and I think.

"Give me 5 restricted cards you have if I win, but if I lose, I'll give you a foot rub." I say, and he grins. "Deal!"

"Match, start!" The guy in the fez calls, and the moment he says those words, my sword turns into a large, fat carrot.

"Ha ha!" Carrot calls out, "Eridanus can no longer fight with a carrot for a sword!" My brows furrow, and I run towards him, taking my carrot's tip and hitting it on a pressure point at his neck. He falls back on to the ground limp, twitching slightly.

"I win, cards," I say, and he sighs. "I surrender. Book, transfer 5 S cards to Eridanus," he says in defeat, and I summon my book, flipping to the restricted section. I look at what I got, 7-Pregnancy Stones, 8-Mystery Pond, 9-Tree of Plenty, 15-Fickle Genie, and 23-Tome of a Thousand Tales. Nice, I'll make a copy of #23 and read that later...

"Eridanus wins this round!" The fez guy says, and Biscuit claps, while everyone else is silent. Whatever, I know they're just jealous of my fabulousness.

I walk back to the stands, and I reach into my messenger bag and pull out my phone, and check it. Doesn't work here, duh. Stupid Hoshi, use your head. I put it back, watching the other competitors. They all look like they just picked up the sword for the first time, swinging it wildly.

The bracket is now narrowed down to 24 people, as one peed his pants and fled. I fenced with a shabby looking man, and I won against him, which he was angry that a 'tiny thing beat him'

Narrowed down to 12, I beat the next, and the next, and I'm finally going up against the last person.

He stood tall, with massive muscles, and a huge afro. He makes the fencing sword in his hand look like a pencil in his hand, and two people can easily sit on each of his shoulders.

"Match, start!" Fez guy says, and I lurch forward, jumping up in the air and onto the massive guy's shoulder, putting my fencing sword to his neck. "Surrender!" I say, and he snorts. "No." he says, and I groan, and I remove the sword from his neck, making a sweeping motion with the sword, jumping off his shoulder. A giant chuck of his afro falls off, and he drops his sword, putting his hands to his head. "I'll take off more, now surrender!" I say, and he gulps. "I-I surrender!" He says, before running away.

"We have our victor, Eridanus!" Fez guy says, and all the competitors who stayed around to watch clap politely, while Biscuit cheers. "Your prize is two cards, #1011 Clone, and #35 Chameleon Cat."

"Thank you!" I say, taking the cards and putting them in my binder. Ahhh, I'm gonna take Chameleon Cat and make it into a pet in the real world if I can take something back with me...

I walk over to Biscuit, and she gives me the thumbs up. "You used 20% effort, right?" She asks with a raised brow, and I laugh, "5%, to be exact."

"That's my student, number?" She asks, holding up a finger. "29."

"Good, you didn't forget," she says with a light laugh, crossing her arms.

"Let's eat!" I say, dragging her off to a cafe, where I ate 5 muffins and drank 3 coffees. I was hungry, okay?

We pay, before leaving, and a tall, untrustworthy mayo man stops us. "Will you hear us out, please?" He asks, and I look at Bisky, and she nods. "Follow me," he says, leading us to a staircase, where we sit down.

More people come, and I see Gon and Killua coming from the distance with another man. Ohhh, I'm so excited! But, they can't know it's me, not yet. I want this to be fun.

"My name, is Hoshi," I mumble to Bisky next to me. "And I don't talk much."

She nods, without any questions, and I hide my Nen.

Gon and Killua don't take any notice of us, and sit in front of us on the staircase, as the men start talking. I pretend I'm listening, but I zone out. I'm thinking, since how we all entered, would that change how this plays out?

Gon and Killua suddenly stand up, setting me on alert. "No, sorry Killua," Gon says, before walking away. "Well, I'm going with him," Killua says, before chasing after Gon. I sigh in relief, this is how it played out in the manga.

"Well, other kids, are you in?" The muppet looking guy asks, looking at us.

"No, we'll pass, come, H," Biscuit says, standing up. I follow her, as we walk away from the group.

"Those young boys, are like, rare diamonds in the rough. They're gonna get killed out here, we should watch over them to make sure they don't die..." Biscuit says, and I lightly laugh. "You're acting like a mother," I say teasingly, and she sticks her tongue out at me. We conceal our Nens, and follow the boys through the town.

"We should ask to join them, I feel really awkward..." I say, and Biscuit nods.

"Boys!" She calls out, and they turn around. "What?!" Killua asks, as we run towards them, "Please let us join you!" She asks. "No," Killua says, and Gon shrugs. "I dragged him along, so he has the final say, sorry!" Gon says, and Biscuit frowns. She probably doesn't get denied a lot...

"Why not?" She asks, widening her eyes to look cute. "Because you'd be a nuisance," he says, and Biscuit's eye twitches. I try really hard not to laugh... They walk away, and Biscuit snaps back to reality.

"H-hold up! Come on H!" She says, and we walk quickly behind them. "We won't be bothersome!" She says, and they enter the woods and start running. Biscuit and I look at each other, and nod. We start jogging after them, since the extensive training I did makes my old, hardcore running a jog, and they turn back and look at us. In a new technique I developed, I put my aura by my ears to hear better.

"Once the bandits come, we can ditch them," Killua says, and I sweat drop. The nerve of him being rude to strangers!

"Don't say that, if they got into the game they must have strong Nen. They can probably escape easily," Gon replies, and I lightly smile under my mask. I can't believe they haven't noticed that I'm Eridanus yet...

We run for thirty minutes, and I can see the look of shock still on their faces that we're still following.

All of the sudden, 6 ninjas pop out from the trees, and jump out at the boys. Biscuit and I stop, and she raises, a fist, but I give her the 'don't' look.

The ninjas bow to the boys, "Please help us! Our village is sick, help!" The boys nod to each other, "We'll help you," Gon says. "We will too!" Biscuit says, and I nod. Killua glares at us, but we follow the ninjas anyway.

We arrive in a small room, and a ninja explains what's going on.

"Please, can you give us 80,000 Jenny so we can buy medicine?" The older villager says. "Isn't that all we have left?" Killua mutters, and Gon nods. "We'll help," he says, and the villager nods. "Can we also have your clothes? My son is very cold..." A villager says, and the boys strip to their undergarments, before they leave.

"Let's go," I say, and we trail off the boys, as they run down a hill.

"Stop following us bakas!" Killua shouts out, and Biscuit's eyebrow twitches. They reach a cliff, and cyclops appear.

The boys look at each other, and smile. "Let's goooo!" They say, jumping off the cliff, and start punching cyclops.

"Ahhh," I say, "I'm itching for a fight that's not against old men or senseis. Or guys who turns swords into carrots..." I roll my shoulders, "should we just watch?"

"Let's watch, and we can clean up the mess in case they might get killed. I'll set you off, than." She says, and I sigh. "They aren't watching, can I summon one of my abilities for fun?" I ask, and she sighs. "Fine."

"Yeet!" I say, and constellation patterns on my cloak shift. "This is my specialist ability, I haven't thought of a name yet. Constellation Creator, maybe?" I say, and cloak turns silver. "Per example, Corona Borealis!" I say, and the constellation appears in black on my cloak. It floats off my cloak, and floats above my hand, before solidifying. It's a gold crown, with flower emblems on it. I look up at Biscuit, and her eyes widen in shock. My cloak fades back to it's regular color, and I smirk from under my mask. "And when I'm done using the item, it goes back to my cloak." I say, putting it on my head. "Don't I look pretty?" I ask, and she laughs. "This is the ability I used to make the ship, too." I say, and I release the constellation, as it returns to my cloak.

We follow the boys some more, and watch them utterly fail. They finally arrive at a knight, and Biscuit's annoyed. "Use Gyo you bakas!" She calls out, and the boys identify the source where the puppet knight is from. We follow them, and they get the knight card.

"Bakas, why didn't you use Gyo when the knight seemed suspicious?" Biscuit asks, hands on hip.

"Hehe, we forgot," the boys say, and irritation marks appear on Biscuit's head.

Biscuit lifts up a finger, and the boys look at it. "What are you do-"

"Use Gyo, bakas!" She says, and they nod, looking at the number. "It's number 1." they reply.

"That's right! Use Gyo whenever I lift up my finger," she says, holding up another hamd.

"5!" Gon says. "Correct! Whitey, give me 200 pushups!" Biscuit says to Killua, and Killua has tick marks appear.

"Why should I anyway? Who are you, some stalker?" He asks, and Biscuit smirks.

"I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Biscuit Krueger, a pro-hunter. I learned Nen 40 years ago, and I will teach you boys with my experience!" She says, crossing her arms.

"Ehhh? 40?" Gon asks, and Killua laughs. "You old hag!" He says, and Bisky kicks his ass 50 feet away from us.

"Respect!" She shouts out. "This is H, and he doesn't talk much." Bisky says, gesturing towards me.

"'Ay." I say, with a short nod. "H is also a pro-hunter," Bisky says, "though, not as old as me."

"Hi H, nice to meet you!" Gon says, and I nod. Killua walks back to us. "We don't need a sensei, we have Wing-san."

"Oh, kid who doesn't tuck in his shirt, has messy hair and glasses? He's one of my students," Biscuit says, and the boys' jaws drop.

"H, are you also Biscuit's student?" Gon asks. "Kinda." I reply, and tick marks appear on Biscuit's head.

"What do you mean 'kinda'? I taught you Nen, than shipped you out to an island for you to improve it. They just enhanced your Nen, they didn't teach you! You're still my student!" Biscuit says, and I raise my hands defensively.

"We-" Biscuit says, before her eyes widen in shock. I felt it too, a creepy bloodlust. I sit down, and Bisky nods, "Good idea, H, boys, sit down." She says, looking towards them. "An enemy is behind us, don't probe for him or he'll notice."

"How could you tell?" Gon asks. "He release a tad bit of blood lust when he saw a bunch of kids," Biscuit says. "H, you make the plans, for practice," Biscuit says, looking at me.

"Boys, walk towards the tree to my left, or your right, after Bisky and I leave. Don't conceal Nen or presence. Once you get to the pillar, use Zetsu and rush back immediately." I stand up, and let out a cry.

"Y-you guys are s-so mean!" I cry out, running away from them. "Onii-chan!" Biscuit says from behind me, but I continue running. I hear a slapping noise, and footsteps behind me, and I see Biscuit. I hug her, and I grab her hand, continuing to run away from them. A small bit of bloodlust leaks out, before quickly fading, closer behind us, and I knew my plan worked. I put a small amount of extra Nen by my ear, and I hear him to my left.

I hear a whoosh of air, and someone tugs at my hood, but it doesn't budge. I hear a snip, and turn and see tufts of blonde hair fall to the ground like feathers.

Edward Scissorhands does his little rant, before turning his Nen on, and eating Biscuit's hair.

His eyes widen, and he removes it from his waist, putting it on the ground and kneeling before Biscuit. "You must be enjoying this," I mumble, and the guy looks up at us.

"I wish to challenge you to a duel," he says, looking at Bisky.

"I would accept, except my student would like to practice new...techniques." Bisky says, looking at me. I nod, rolling my shoulders, and stepping forward.

"Take off your cloak, like a man, and fight me!" He snarls, and I shake my head. "Cloak stays on. Nothing makes me take it off, no one except me, myself and I."

I swish my cloak to the right side, pulling out my right hand, 10 Lyra Launchers loaded. I have my other hand under my cloak, with Lyra Launchers in that hand not visible. With the flick of my right hand, I release my Lyra Launchers at me, and his eyes follow them as he dodges out of the way, but they continue to follow him.

I drop the other Lyra Launchers in my left hand, and they sneak behind him and attack him from the back. Since I want to have a fight-fight, I made it so they would only give him a small shock.

With a glare, he runs at me, fists ready, and he swings his fist at my chest. Bad choice, I side step him, grabbing his arm and flipping him over. Still grabbing his arm, I jump around quickly to face the other side, making him twist his arm with a loud _CRACK._ I back away from him, but he wobbily stands up.

"Not done yet, I presume?" I ask, facing him again. He pulls out a pair of scissors, with a smirk. "I'm gonna cut you into ribbons for that!" He snarls, and I yawn. "Can you finish, I wanna go to bed at a decent time so I don't have dark circles under my eyes." I say, and his brows furrow. He charges at me, clicking his scissors. I put 65% Nen into my fists, and 35% into my defense. Expanding my Nen, the moment he enters it I do a back handspring, knocking the scissors out of his hand and into the air.

I pop out of the position, grabbing the scissors in mid-air, crushing them with my hands, tossing them aside. As his gaze temporarily looks at the discarded scissors, I give him an uppercut, sending him flying into the air. I quickly send 65% Nen to my legs, rest going to defense, as I jump up in the air and give him a roundhouse kick, sending him flying into a rock.

I float down from mid air, cloud of dust settling around me. I waltz over to him, pulling off my amulet and pressing the button. It turns into a flask, and I force it to his mouth. "Drink." I command, and he hesitantly drinks it.

"I made it strawberry flavor, to make it easier to gulp down. Drink it all." He keeps drinking, until all liquids are emptied.

"Return," I whisper, and it turns back into an amulet, which I string around my neck.

"I feel...stronger. What's in that?!" He asks. "Healing potion, with pain killers. I want you to continue to fight me. It's 10 hours worth of energy, so we have a while. I'll go Nen-less, this time." I say, gesturing with him to charge towards me with my hands, as I put away my Nen.

He rushes towards me, fists raised to punch me in the face. I side step it with speed the moment it was close to my face, and I lift up my foot, as he smashes his face into my foot. With grace, I kick him up into the air, where I jump up, putting my elbow on his back, and gravity takes place as he slams into the ground with me on top of him.

I jump off of him, rolling my shoulders. "Weak, is this your full effort?" He asks, standing up, spitting blood and a tooth out of his mouth on to the ground.

"Mind your manners, please. We're in front of my sensei," I say, and he charges toward me. I had used some Barabrin already, with the elbow slam, which is kinda dirty. I had already used Aikido, which is the use of my opponent's momentum against him, I used my Lyra Launchers, I didn't feel like using my sword or making my star into an aura.

"Bisky, what should I use?" I ask, and she shrugs. "Do something with your Constellation Creator!" She calls out, and I think of a constellation.

"That's too hard! I don't feel like it!" I say, before I run towards him quickly, punching him in the face, knocking him out.

"Did I do good?" I ask Bisky, and she gives me a thumbs up. "Shoulda used your sword!" She calls out, and I shrug. "Didn't feel like it!" I call back, dusting off my pants. "He got me all dusty..." I complain, and I put some Nen in my feet as I jump up the cliff, and to the top.

"Now, you boys, do you wish to be my students?" Bisky asks, and they both nod.

The boys hop off the cliff, and to the area Edward is. "You think they're gems, right?" I ask, and Biscuit nods. "Both are like raw gems, I can polish them, making them even more beautiful and shine brighter! Gon's a diamond, Killua's a sapphire, and you..."

"What am I?" I ask, and she thinks.

"Well, if you were a polished gemstone, maybe Blue Azurite? Blue Fluorite? Blue Sodalite?"

"You can stop if you don't kno-"

"Blue Turquoise? Hackmanite? Lapis Lazuli?"

"Y'know what, how about when you figure out the gemstone, you can send me it in the mail." I say, "You can probably find one on your adventures." I say, cutting her off before she can list more gems.

"Yeah, I guess." She says, and I nod. Thank god that was over. "I'm going night-night," I say, taking off my amulet, pressing the button, before putting it on the ground. It turns into a double-person sleeping bag, with two pillows. Biscuit's jaw drops, "How do you do that?" She asks, and I shrug.

"Don't question it, just let it happen," I say, taking off my shoes and entering the sleeping bag. "I did this a lot at the island because at night it got really cold..." I trail off, before I fall asleep.

* * *

Ah, I wrote a lot! Since school started this Thursday (well, I'm writing this Wednesday, so by the time you're reading this I'm at school) so I may make shorter chapters. Please leave reviews, I'm always happy to read them!

I, personally, rather liked writing Eri on her own adventure, because it gave character development so she has a leg up. But, this is a HxH fanfic, so I have to have them interacting :P

Have a fun school year!


	5. Mix x Ups x and x Fix Ups

I accidentally uploaded a chapter from my Ouran story- sorry for the confusion! So here's the correct chapter.

* * *

Groggily waking up, I look over at Bisky, who's sitting on the cliff, watching the boys. I step out of the sleeping back, rubbing my eyes. "Return," I mumble, and the sleeping bag vanishes, replaced by my amulet. I pick it up, pressing the button, before releasing it. It turns into one of those Snackeez things, where it's a cup with a straw, and a food bowl inside. I open it up, and see grapes, and I take a sip and it's nice, cold milk. I take a grape, popping it in my mouth. The red grape is sweet, and makes me want to eat more...

Walking over to Bisky, I sit down, watching the two boys attempting to fight Scissorhands.

"How long was I sleeping?" I ask, taking a sip of my milk and she thinks. "20 hours, probably."

I spit out my milk in shock, before rubbing my mouth with the back of my hand. "That's a long time..." I mumble, and she nods. I look back at the boys, as they were attacking with a flurry of punches. Interesting, I would slip in the water puddles left behind.

"I figured out what gem you are." Bisky says, and I look at her, an eyebrow raised. "Really?"

"You're a Blue Topaz, you have a bright, happy color, that draws others to you naturally with your warm-hearted nature. Though delicate looking, topaz is strong, and shines beautifully."

"Huh, thanks. I guess, you're a Rubellite, because, uh, they're pretty looking."

"You're bad at this, but thanks," she says, turning her attention back to the boys. Gon delivers the final blow to the stomach, and Edward kneels in defeat. Binolt, which is Edward's name, jumps up the cliff with the two boys, drops his scissors.

"H, student of Biscuit, I owe you my life for healing me. Anything I can do to repay for it?" He asks with a bow, and my eyebrow twitches. The reason I healed him was because I fought him.

"If you have any cards, I'd love to have some."

"Yes! O-of course! Book!" He calls out, and his book opens, and he flips to a section and hands me two cards.

"There, I'll be off now!" He says, walking in the direction of the woods. I wave bye, before looking at the two cards. Sweet! I got number 33, Hormone Cookies, and 48, Aromatherapy girl.

I summon my book, placing the cards in their respectful places. I dismiss the book, and see Gon and Killua looking up at me.

"Why is your username Ramen Lover #1?" They ask, and I shrug. "I love Ramen."

"Also, how can you do those attacks? They look pretty hard," Killua says. "Practice."

"But, that looks like you practiced for years. How did it look so effortless?" Killua persists.

"I practice in my dreams."

"Really? Cool!" Gon says, but Killua just sweat drops. "H was using sarcasm, Gon."

"No, he wasn't," Bisky says, putting an elbow on my shoulder. "H has practiced his Nen techniques so frequently, he dreams of practicing it, which is uncommon, but not unheard of. The brain bases it's dreams off of what happens in the day, so if H practices Nen all the time, he would dream of Nen."

"Ohhhh..." Gon says. Killua just makes a sour face, whatever.

"To Masadora!" Bisky says, pumping her fist into the air. The boys cheer, and we all go in the direction of Masadora.

When we arrive, we walk into a store that sells a bunch of cards, and Bisky buys some.

"Boys, let's head back to the dunes," she says, and I nod in agreement. This part was interesting to watch in the anime.

The boys look confused, but follow Bisky anyway, and we walk back to where we were a few hours later.

Bisky pulls out 3 cards, and drops them on the ground. "Gain!" She calls out, and they turn into 3 shovels, 3 flashlights and 2 buckets.

"Ughhhhhhh," I say, slumping my shoulders. I have to do this too!

"We're going back to Masadora, but in a straight line!" She says, pointing at the rocks behind her.

"Bisky, whyyyyyyyyy... that looks so hard and I value my laziness..." I say, and she grins. "You'll be digging to Masadora!" She says with a sing-song voice, and I sigh. "Fine," I mumble, grabbing a shovel, walking over to the wall.

I'll let the boys learn by themselves to extend their auras into their shovels, so I just dig like a normal person.

The sky darkens, and we finally break through the rock. My cloak kept me cool, but I was still sweating at the brow. I wipe it away with the back of my hand, and I look at Bisky reading a magazine on the rock.

"I can't believe you didn't use your Shu, H," she says, and I shrug. "They need to learn that themselves."

Bisky arranges us at the rocky wall, giving us a rope. "Keep your mind alert while sleeping, there's a chance I might cut the rope. H, I gave you a larger rock." I look up, and see a giant boulder. "You gotta be kiddin' me..." I mumble, before I enter a meditation/sleeping trance, where I'm still aware of my surroundings.

I feel a slight wind in front of me, and I roll over to my left, hearing a giant thud. Creaking open my eye, I see the boulder had fallen in the spot I was.

"Thanks for trying to kill me, Bisky," I say, and she shrugs. "This training is too easy for you, I want you to put the Nen in your feet, and do 1000 squat jumps, bouncing off the rocks to Masadora and back. In the morning, though, you need rest. Once you're done, you'll get rest."

"Bless," I say, and I fall asleep there and than.

I wake up to Bisky shaking me, and I groggily open my eye. "Start."

I sigh, wobbily standing up, glaring at the orange sun that peaked over the rocks.

"1," I say, putting the Nen in my feet, jumping off the ground and into the air. When I slightly fall down, I put Nen on my feet, leaning them towards the 90 degree cliff, keeping my body at a 125 degree angle.

"2," I say, squatting at the cliff side, launching myself to the next rock. I float through the air, and on my descent, I lean forward, and hit the top of the flat rock, rolling into a ball before jumping off.

"3," I say, before squatting off, and I do this 77 more times before I reach Masadora in 1 hour.

I'm at 80 now, and I pant. I was going as fast as possible. I summon my flask, drinking a bunch of water and using a restroom in Masadora, before I turn back to where I came from.

"Let's do this..." I mumble, and start jumping.

12 and a hours later, I was done. Thank god. Bisky was smirking at me, and I sighed in between my pants. It's 5 at night, and I just want to sleep.

"That sucked, Bisky." I say, and she shrugs. "Do it now, there on your left foot, back on your right. And, hold this," she says, pointing at a giant boulder. My mouth opens at the sight of it, "What the actual truck!?" I ask, and she winks.

"Strength!" She says, and I groan. "I would rather dig..." I mumble, walking over to the boulder, picking it up, holding it over my head, putting some Nen in my arms.

"Nope! No Nen in your arms! Or Shu in your boulder!" She says, and I groan, releasing the Nen from my arms, making the weight of the boulder a bajillion times heavier.

"Friggin' sucks!" I say, sticking my right foot out as I squat, jumping up on my left foot.

I come back 5 hours later, and I throw the boulder at a cliff, sticking a hole through that cliff.

"Bisky, that freaking sucked! Why are you so mean to me?!" I ask, and she shrugs, flipping through her magazine.

"The training regimen the boys have is too easy," she says, "you need sleep, I'll wake you up when it's morning."

And she did, at 3 AM when the sun rose. Every day, for the next 2 weeks while the boys learned Ken, I did the stupid training. I can now do the 1000 squat-jumps in under an hour, and I can do those with the boulder too in one hand. Without the boulder, I can do it in 55 minutes. And, without Nen.

"Want to do your category training, H? The boys are doing it today," Bisky says, and I nod. I sit at a rock from across them, and Killua raises an eyebrow. "We haven't seen you in a week or so, where have you been?" Killua asks.

"Training." I say. "Well, I bet yours isn't as hard as ours," he brags, and I eye roll.

"Yes, my experience training isn't as hard as your beginning training." I say, and Gon smiles. "Well, I bet you did well!" he says, and I nod.

"Smash a thousand rocks with one rock in a day, and you'll pass level one for the Enhancer category." Bisky says, and we all nod. A thousand? Bisky is going easy on us, I did 2,000 a day for a few weeks on the island.

I smash the rocks in ten minutes, using speed, and I sit back once the rock pile is gone. "I can't believe you haven't finished earlier, H." Bisky says, and I look at my hand. "I didn't want to break a nail," I admit truthfully, they had all grown out evenly and looked really nice. The boys sweatdrop, and Gon breaks his rock.

"Ahh!" he says in frustration, when Killua's rock breaks. "God damn it!" Killua swears, and I roll my eyes. They'll get it eventually.

"Specialist, do your thing!" Biscuit says, and Killua and Gon look at me with wide eyes.

"Kugoi~! You're a specialist?!" Killua asks, and I shrug. "I bounce around all the Nen types, but I consider my 'specialist ability' a mix of Manipulation and Specialist...any requests?" I say, and Gon raises his hand.

"Oo-oo, me!" he says. "Make a... a..."

"Oh, I don't really feel like making anything, I'm too tired," I say, rubbing my eyes. "But, I'll do some training with you guys. Avoid my Lyra Launchers, and we can call it a day on my part."

"Eh? Those little balls?! They can't do any dama-" Killua says, and I summon a small, red one, and I fling it at his forehead quickly, where it shocks him. I figured out how to make them go from a neutral color to any color I want, cool, right?

"Ow! What was that for?!" He asks, putting his hand to his forehead.

"I said avoid my Lyra Launchers. I'll go easy on you guys at first, if you're hit 3 times you're out for the day. Killua has one strike, and to make sure you guys don't lie, I made the Lyra Launchers colored." I say, plopping down on a rock and Killua moves his hand from his forehead, where a thumb nail sized red star was imprinted.

"Woah, Killua, you have a red star on your forehead!" Gon says, pointing towards Killua's forehead.

"B-baka!" Killua says, pointing at me. "You'll pay for that!" The boys flair up their Ken, and I roll my eyes.

"Nope, I'm broke af." I say, raising both of my hands up, summoning a bunch of Lyra Launchers in them. "These ones won't follow you around if they don't hit you, since this is practice." I say, and 10 Lyra Launchers lift in the air off my palms, and turn green.

They slowly go towards the boys, and their Ken wavers slightly. I quickly speed up the Lyra Launchers, and the boys try to dodge them by holding up their arms, as if the Ken would make the Lyra Launchers bounce it off, but 5 green stars just line the boys arms.

"Owww!" They say, holding their arms. "You both are done." I say, and Killua groans in frustration.

"Why did they not bounce off our Ken?!" He asks. "It's not supposed to do that, duh. This is to improve your reaction time to attacks, so you can try and avoid any unavoidable attacks, if that makes sense." I say, blabbering, looking at their confused expressions.

"Anyway, I'm done." I say, standing up from the rock. "Have fun with life," I say, squatting down, jumping up to the top of the cliff, and I land on top, and I sit on the edge, and meditate.

I feel a rush of air tingle my neck, and I reach out behind me quickly, grabbing the hand of the person trying to attack me, and I throw them over me, dropping them off the cliff.

Standing up, I jump off the cliff, cloak fluttering around me as I land on my two feet on top of my attacker. My cloak settles around me, as they let out an 'oof' and I look at them. Whispy, greying hair, rotting teeth, crooked nose and gnarly fingers.

"What are you doing." I ask, as I see fear in their yellowed, brown eyes.

"I-I was wandering the neighborhood, and I-" they're cut off as I bark out a laugh. "Wandering the neighborhood my ass, you wanted to attack me for cards, am I right?" They quickly nod, and I step off of them.

"Summon your book," I demand, "B-b-book," they stutter, and their book appears. I grab the book, and flip through it.

"You got a lot of bogey," I say, flipping to the restricted section. "Oooh, Breath of Archangel and Devil's Jade, I wonder how long it took you to steal cards from players to obtain these." I take the cards from the book. "Book," I say, and my book appears, as I place my new cards in there, before the book disappears.

"I want to practice a new technique..." I mutter, and I summon Burning Star in my hand, and I place it to the book.

The book's cover doesn't set on fire, but when I open the book, the cards burn. "Interesting," I say, and I restrain Burning Star, and I give the book back to the attacker.

"Do it through battle next time," I say, walking away. "My cards!" They wail in agony, "You'll pay for this, Cloaked Man!"

I laugh loudly, and I turn around, cloak swishing with me. I walk up to them, pick them up, and drop kick them 10 miles away from me, and into the ocean which I know is nearby. My arms and legs have gotten crazy strong with the boulder-squats...

"H!" I hear from behind me, and I see Gon coming from around the corner. "Yes?" I ask innocently. "I just saw a body flying through the air, did you see that?" He asks, and I shake my head no.

"Well, I wanna show everyone something, so let's go!" He says, and I follow him.

Gon shows us his rock-paper-scissors attack. "I was wondering how I launch my Nen, like H, which gave me the idea." He says, and my cheeks flush from under the mask. Gon never mentioned in the manga he got the idea for launching paper from someone, let alone me.

"Practice." I say, and he nods.

"Ahem," Killua says, and he creates static electricity in his hands. I see Biscuit's eyes widen, but I laugh at how Killua's hair gets all staticky.

"Great job on your improvement, let's celebrate! What do you boys do to celebrate, since it's almost New Years on the outside world."

"Wait, it's almost New Years? What day is it today?" I ask, and Bisky thinks. "I believe it's...December 12? New Years is in a couple weeks."

"Oh, the Hunter exams are coming up, so I'll need to leave for the real world," Killua says. My eyes widen. "I'm leaving, bye bye. I'll be back in a day, or two," I say, before putting Nen in my feet. "Hold up right there, H." Bisky says, putting her hands on my shoulders. "Why leave so suddenly? I don't think you need to take the Hunter exams."

"Oh, it's my birthday today, and I'm going to bring back cake for everyone." I say, and everyone's eyes widen.

"Whaaa? It's your birthday?" Killua asks, and I nod. "How old are you turning, H? 18? 20?" Gon asks.

"Oh, I'm turning 13." I say, and everyone's eyes widen. "Whaaat?" Gon, Killua and Biscuit ask. "I thought you were an adult who looked really young! Like me!" Biscuit says, and the boys nod in agreement.

"We're 13, and we're turning 14 soon," Killua says, and Gon nods (A/N-I'm going to have the characters age).

"Since I'm turning 13, I'll answer 3 questions from each of you, and do one thing you demand." I say, pointing at them. "Whaaaa?" They ask, and I nod. "Since I don't reveal much information about myself, I'll tell you all a truth." I say, grabbing a rock from the ground and wrapping my aura around it. "If I lie, this rock will break." I command, and I set the rock down on the ground.

"I'll go first," Biscuit says. "What's your favorite color?" She asks, and I think.

"I like most colors, but I like blues and purples." I reply, and she nods. "What's your favorite animal?" She asks. "I don't know, I like fluffy animals." I reply.

"You're asking dumb questions!" Killua says, and Biscuit shushes him.

"Is your hair natural?" Biscuit asks. "Yup!" I say, and her jaw drops. "It's so cool..." she mutters.

"My turn, H, where did you first learn Nen?" Gon asks. "Biscuit taught me on a ship," I reply, "I did the hard method."

"H, what does H stand for?" Gon asks. "Hoshi." I reply, and he thinks.

"Isn't that a girl name?" He asks. "Yes, it's a 'girl name'," I say with finger quotes, "and it translates to 'little star'."

"Are you a girl?" He asks. "3 question limit reached, next," I say, pointing to Killua.

"Hoshi, are you really related to Eridanus?" He asks. "Yup, and call me H! Hoshi is a girl's name..." I mumble, crossing my arms. I am technically related to Eridanus, since we're the same person.

"Why do you and Eri both cover your faces?" He asks. "So we can't be recognized, to remain a mystery, safety reasons."

"Where is Eridanus?" He asks, and I smirk. "You know the answer to this, Killua. You have to find him yourself. That was a stupid question, so I'll let you ask one more."

"Is Eridanus your brother?" He asks. "No." I reply bluntly, and his jaw drops. "You told us you were bro-"

"I'll carry out everyone's requests now." I say, ignoring what Killua was saying.

"Okay than, Hosh-" Biscuit starts, but I hold up a hand. "H." I say, and she sighs.

"Fine, H, I want you to give me a high-five." She says, holding up a hand.

"What's with the stupid requests!? You can always ask their most personal questions, make them take off their mask, or murder someone!" Killua complains.

"Than request that yourself," I say, giving Bisky a high five.

"Me next, can you make something for me from your cloak? It looks really cool!" Gon says, and I nod.

"The thing is, it has to be an existing constellation, so I can't just conjure something, but I'll do that last, in case you guys wanna go somewhere." I say, and Gon nods.

"My turn," Killua says, walking up to me, hands in pockets. "Take off your mask."

"No thanks." I say, turning from him. "Why not? You said anything!"  
"New rule, can't take off mask." I reply, and he thinks.

"My request is 3 more questions."

"Fine, ask." I reply, and he thinks.

"How are you related to Eridanus?" He asks. I think, how should I reply? And piss him off?

"We're very close." I say, and he throws his head back in agitation.

"Fine," he growls, "are you a girl."

"When one feels like it, anyone can be a girl." I reply, and he grabs his hair and yanks in frustration. "Aghhhhh!" he says, and I laugh.

"Can you take off your hood, but leave your mask on?" He asks, and I shrug.

"Sure," I say, "haven't done this in a while though, so I don't know how long my hair will be with all the Nen I've been doing..."

I take off my hood, and my hair is surprisingly still in it's bun, though it's majorly saggy and loose. I adjust my mask, and look at Killua.

"Satisfied?" I ask, and he shakes his head no. "Undo your bun." He says, and I reach my hands back to my braid, and I unpin my bun, and my hair in a ponytail-braid. "Done?" I ask, and he shakes his head. "Let your hair loose." He says, and I sigh. I grab my hair in the braid, dragging up the end. The end of the braid is now at my ankles, so who knows how long my hair is now? I take out the rubber band, and my hair comes loose. All of it.

It's super wavy, and starts turning pink mid-back, and it's a good 6 inches on the ground.

"Wow, that's a lot of hair!" Gon says, and I nod. "Excessive Nen training does this, I've grown it out for... 6 months?" I ask, and Killua's jaw drops.

"Why is it pink at the ends?" He asks, and I shrug. "Anyway, I kinda keep it wrapped up in the cloak," I say, before I gather my hair and put it in a high ponytail, where the ends of my hair trail off by the ground. I wrap it into a bun, and I put my hood back up.

"I'll do your hair!" Biscuit volunteers, but I shake my head. "I'll probably go get a hair cut or something later, and donate it." I say with a shrug.

"Anyway, Killua, you were saying you have to go to the Hunter's exam?" I ask, looking at him. He nods, "Well, tomorrow, we'll go into town and find a way to get you to the real world, and H can summon something to take us there to fulfill Gon's request." Bisky says, and I nod.

"Great, I'll be going nigh-nigh now," I say, before jumping up onto a plateau's flat part, and I fall asleep.

I wake up to the sun, and I hear Gon calling out my name from below the plateau.

"If you guys want a ride, y'all have to get up here!" I yell out.

Biscuit jumps up, barely making it, and the boys climb up the sides.

"Alright, let's do this," I say, dusting myself off. I turn from them, inhaling through my nose. What constellation can take us there? Argo Navis is for water, and I don't feel like summoning a dragon...

"Pegasus!" I call out, and the constellations on my cloak shift, so that one forms Pegasus. My cloaks glow a silvery-white, and the Pegasus constellation glows black on my cloak, before peeling off and floating in front of me.

I open my eyes, and I exhale, as the constellation begins to take form of a silver-white horse, about 4 times the size of a regular horse, with powerful wings. It has two majestic wings growing out of the sides of its back, with the feathers tinted a silvery gray at the ends.

I jump up to face the pegasus's nose, and I float in the air as I stroke it's nose. It nuzzles me back, and I smile. I float over to it's back, and I sit down.

"Get up guys!" I say, and Gon's jaw drops. "Amazing!" he squeals, "How do I jump up?"

"Put your Nen in your feet, and jump up." I say, and Biscuit jumps up and sits behind me, and Killua follows.

"This is impressive," he says, with a dazed expression, and I smirk. Gon jumps up, and sits behind Killua.

"To Masadora, Pegasus, please!" I say, and the pegasus neighs, before rearing up, and starts beating its powerful wings.

"Hold on everyone!" I say, and I wrap my hands around the Pegasus's neck, as it flies through the skies.

The wind rustles its feathers, as it occasionally beats its powerful wings, but it mostly glided. The wind blew in my face, and my hood fell off, and my hair became undone from its braid.

"Your hair is growing, H!" Gon says, "I guess it's because the more Nen I use, the more it'll grow, since it's a life force. Since I'm solidifying and creating a life force that's powerful enough to use muscles, and not just float through an ocean, that's why it's growing." I say, "Bisky..."

"I know..." she mumbles, before pulling out a knife and cutting my hair with a single _swipe._

I look behind me, as I see long, pink strand of hair float down to the ground. "Thanks!" I say, before turning back around, looking at the towns below us.

"I see Masadora!" I say, and the Pegasus descends into the woods. "Everyone, off!" I say, and everyone hops off.

"Thank you," I say, rubbing the pegasus's head affectionately, before hopping off.

"Return!" I call out, and the Pegasus turns back into it's constellation shape, my cloak glows, and the Pegasus constellation returns.

I run my fingers through my hair, it's now down to mid-back, so I take my last rubber band, and I put it into a bun, before lifting my hood. I turn to face the group, and Gon's eyes are sparkling.

"That was so cool! Let's go to Masadora now!" He says, and we leave the woods.

"Y'know, you don't really act like you're 13," Killua says, and I raise an eyebrow. "How so? Neither do you," I say, and he shrugs. "You're too...old. You act like you're in your late 20's."

"Well, Mr. Assassin, you're acting like you're a cold dish." His eyes widen at the mention of 'assassin'.

"How...?"

"I saw the way you act," I say, walking away from him, and into a bakery. I buy 4 cupcakes, before leaving and meeting up with Gon, Killua and Biscuit at the port.

"How did you know we were here, H?" Killua asks.  
"The leave cards are super rare, and there's no airplanes or cars here, but there's boats." I say, passing him a cupcake.

"Thanks," he says, before holding up a card. "I'll be on my way, than," he says, before getting on a boat, as it sails off. We all wave, and Gon and Biscuit turn towards me.

"We got you something!" they say, and I smile. "Really? You guys didn't have to."

"Nonsense, it's your birthday!" Gon says, passing me a small box with a bow on it. I open it, and I raise an eyebrow.

"You can go buy something with the card!" He says, and I hold up his Hunter's License. "Sorry to break it to you, Gon, but I'm already a Hunter. And, you need to keep your license, you'll only get one." His jaw drops, and I put the license in his hand.

"Really?" He asks, and I reach into my messenger bag, pulling out my license. "Yup."

"Well, I'll just buy you something with my license?" He asks, and I laugh. "Sure." I say, and Bisky passes me a box, and I open it.

"You...shouldn't have! This is a Blue Topaz, right?" I ask, and she nods. I examine the blue topaz choker necklace, and how it sparkled in the light. It was very dainty, it was just a silver chain with a small blue topaz hanging on the end.

"Thank you!" I say, putting it around my neck. Of course, you can't really see it, but it's the thought that counts.

A dark skinned man walks up to us, explaining the situation about the bomber, which I zone out about. I really didn't care...

"You're a Nen exorcist, right? Just exorcise the Nen bomb on your shoulder," I say, and he looks up at me with wide eyes.

"H-how di-"

"That diddly squat means nothing, but I just saved your life. Do it quickly, your timer is running out," I say, nodding at the timer. He nods at me, before walking away from us.

"How did you know, H?" Biscuit asks, and I shrug. "Spoilers," I say, pulling a River Song on them.

We go to a card shop, and buy some cards, with Gon obtaining the S-Rank card 'Jail.'

We travel to an open field, and I sit on a rock, with Bisky besides me, as we watch Gon practice his Nen.

"How long do you think mastering my techniques will take?" He asks, and Bisky shrugs.

"Depends on the person, I've mastered my techniques, but it doesn't mean they're very strong," I say, standing up.

"Per example." I summon burning star, and my aura becomes more opaque, making my image inside my Nen look foggy. The Nen becomes silvery, with edges burning white.

"Woooahhhh! I've never seen Nen look like that before!" Gon says, and I smirk. "Try touching it," I ask, and he hesitantly reaches a hand forward, an inch away from my Nen, but he pulls back.

"Your Nen is burning hot! I can feel it close to my hand, like a flame!" He says, and I nod, retracting my Nen.

"It's defensive, so no one can get too close unless they wanna become a burnt potato, but I can shoot people with it if I release it like my Lyra Launchers. I don't practice it often, so even though I have mastery over it, doesn't mean it can be as great as it can be if I practice more." I explain. "If you practice hard, and achieve mastery over your technique, doesn't mean it can't be stronger."

He nods, with a smile. "Than, I'll practice and make it wayyyyy stronger than average mastery!" He says, pumping a fist into the air.

We practiced our Nens for a week, and finally receive a message from Killua to meet him at the starting point. When we got there, he acted all 'cool' on how he got his license.

"Yeah yeah, you beat up a ton of people with exact, precise pressure points, no biggie." I say, and Killua looks at me with wide eyes. "How did you know?" He asks, and I smirk. Of course, he can't see my smirk.

"You're right hand's 2 first fingers are tenser than usual," I say, pointing at his hand.

"Whatever, but you guys got a lot of cards when I was gone! Even an S-Rank! Wanna use one?" Killua says, looking through Gon's book.

"Sure," Gon says, and Killua passes him a card. "1040, you can communicate with someone you've met before." I say, looking at the card.

Gon opens up the list, and everyone deadpans. "Who's Ramen Lover #1?" Killua and Gon ask confused, and Biscuit raises an eyebrow at me, but I just wink.

"Woah! Is that Chrollo Lucifer? How did he get into a Nen based game if his Nen is locked?!" Killua asks, pointing at a name.

"Silly gooses, Chrollo hasn't purged his Nen yet. You can choose any name you want in this game. Besides, if you can lock up someone's Nen, you can always free it with a Nen exorcist, but they're really rare Nen types." I say, and the boys nod in understandment.

"So who's Chrollo, than?" Gon asks, and I internally squeal.

We set off around the island, and soon arrive at a giant tree. "You gotta shake the King Great White Beetle out!" The IGC says, and I look at Gon. "Do you wanna, or should I?" I ask, and he shrugs. "You go ahead, I wanna see how you do it H!" He says cheerfully, and I nod.

I walk up to the tree, and kick it effortlessly without any Nen. The tree shakes, and a bunch of bugs come out.

"Wow!" All three of them say, and we search for the beetle until Gon finds it, and we obtain 4 cards.

"You could've obtained more if you used more effort, H." Biscuit says with a smirk, crossing her arms as the boys' jaws drop.

"You didn't use any effort?!" They ask, and I shrug. "It was easy, I just kicked." I say, putting the card in my book.

Next, we collect a gold dust girl, a memory helmet, witch's love potion, risky dice, and Paladin's necklace. Not to mention the jail card. Together, with the cards I collected, we have 16.

We go to a casino, with Killua rolling dice and scoring a restricted card.

"Score!" He says, and I applaud him. "I'm gonna go do it, regular style!" I say, going to the slot machine beside him, pulling the handle. I get all 7s, and they gape at me. "What?" I ask, as Spirited Away card pops out, and I put it in my book.


	6. The x Return

After a long, long time, we finally made it to 50 special cards. Yes, 50 cards. I remember from the anime that someone had already collected near 100, but my old memories of home are becoming more distant. It's been two years, but new adventures have taken the place of ordinary memories in my brain.

I can't remember the faces or voices of my 'friends' or 'teachers' from my old life, I can only remember everything that was related to my family. The house, the way my mother used to sing songs while baking or while stressed, the summer evenings when my little brother and I would sit on the roof and watch the stars to come out to play. The only reason I still hold onto these memories is because I refuse to let them go from me, I need to hold onto these so I know what I shall return to one day when I return.

I just need to find my mother: Spirea Woodruff. Once I collect enough information about her, I'll be able to find her easily. Wherever she is, I cannot wait to see her smiling face again.

Or at least I hope so.

"H...don't you think it's weird that though there's hundreds of characters we can turn all of our items into cards?" Gon asks as I look over at him, shrugging.

"I don't know."

"But the players before us should've collected them," Gon theorizes, and I shrug once more. "I don't really know, to be honest. Killua, any ideas?"

"I suppose that no more than 30 teams in this game have made any _real_ progress, or are even capable of doing so. Most probably are trying to save their cards, or haven't found them yet."

Gon nods, soaking up all the new information presented to him. "So most aren't trying to get restricted cards?"

"Yep, they're too absorbed in the idea of finding a way out of the game," Killua sighs.

"Oh. Don't you think it'd suck if you went to Masadora but didn't have any leave cards?" Gon responds, and Killua stops in his tracks.

"Wait a moment...Bisky! What would you do if you didn't have a leave card in Masadora?"

"Well, I'd save up money until the card comes along."

"H?" He asks, and I think. "Well, I'd keep collecting cards and trade some for a chance-"

Realization struck me as a smirk played on my mouth from under the mask. "I see what you're getting at, Killua."

The white haired boy smiles back at me, before explaining what would happen to the two others.

* * *

"Sir? Do you need a leave card?" I ask, leaning on the doorframe of the card shop as I watch a disgruntled man step out.

"Yeah, it's pretty hard to obtain one," he groans as I hold one up, smirking at him. "What if I told you I'd trade you this for a restricted card? You seem far too adventurous for one to be held down in this game forever."

"I...I don't see why not."

* * *

We went to a meeting discussing Genthru's party, but I zoned out the whole time, already knowing most of the information. The weird bug-arc was to come up soon, but I don't know if I should attend it or not. It was not only dangerous, but it took many lives and eventually intertwined in outsider's lives. If I could easily cut off the root of the source before it began, could I stop it from happening completely? But, in the end, people grew stronger from the event and it lead Gon to find his father: the only thing that motivated him to become a hunter.

"I'm heading back to the campsite," I sigh, feeling a sudden wave of fatigue overcome me, "Goodnight, everyone."

"Goodnight!" Gon waves, as I give a small smile, before walking off.

Trudging forward, I look for a card, realizing I left all the teleportation cards with the group.

Great.

"That Spirea chick is supposedly back on the market," I overhear a voice say in the town as I arch a brow, leaning against a wall and hiding my aura.

"Yeah, she's back after how many years?"

"Too damn long, that's the answer," replied a chuckle, as I felt my hands shake. Spirea Woodruff was my mother who left when my brother was first diagnosed with a brain tumor when he was 7 and I 9. She took my brother and I to a grocery store on a Saturday like she always had, then there was a large, ear-ringing sound. She quickly left, and that was that.

"She's apparently in York New, continuing that blasted research. Can't believe she's still at it, especially since the Hunter council denounced her," the other man replied, causing my eyes to widen to the size of saucers. The Hunter license can't be revoked, so my mom must've done something really bad...

What was this research, too? Brows furrowing, I leaned closer, adjusting the mask over my mouth. This cloak is bothersome at times, and I occasionally missed the headscarf, but I already had built a personality as this 'H' character.

"She's built a ring around herself, it won't be easy to infiltrate..."

"But the price on her head is too damn high to pass up! Come on, Ger, we'll be rolling in dough for the rest of time with this kind of money!"

So, my mother is a wanted criminal in this world, wonderful. Seems like I have an awful lot to live up to.

Stepping out of the shadows, I crack my shoulders, causing attention from the two brutish-looking males to be fixated on me. "What do you want, shrimp."

"Information on Spirea Woodruff," I threaten, "or else things may not end well." Focusing on my aura, I cause Draco to peel off, gradually taking form until he towered over the two cowering men at only a small fraction of its true being.

"P-put that thing away," one claims, wiping sweat off their bald head, "we'll tell you."

The dragon dissolve, forming back on my cloak.

"Speak."

"S-Spirea is the only ex-hunter around, to speak her full name is taboo itself," the patchy-haired one answers, "but everyone who knows of her refers to her as Spirea. She still holds her license, but she is not publicly recognized as a hunter, but more as a criminal."

"What did she do?" I spit out, feeling dread creep up the back of my throat.

"That's the thing, only the Hunter Association knows and they hushed up what she's done, but she apparently is researching a bunch of things and recruits various criminals to do jobs for her. She's about as rich as all the Kings combined," the bald one informs, as I cross my arms.

"Can you take me to her?"

"We don't even know where she is, apparently there's just faint traces of her appearing around York New, so there's just rumors again."

"What happens if she's found?"

"She'll be put on trial and her crimes will probably be publicly announced," the patchy one shrugs, "it'll be hard to catch her, though."

Frowning to myself, I give a short nod to the men. "Thank you."

"Hey, kid, why do you want to know?" The patchy one asks as I feel a smirk fall into place on my face.

"Spirea and I have a long chat to be held." And with that, I quickly left, heading towards the exit port of Greed Island. Scribbling a quick message, I pass it over to the ticket vendor.

"If two boys come along with the names Killua or Gon, please give this to them." I ask, as he nods, taking the paper. "Alright, I will. The ship is leaving in a moment, so get on board quickly."

Nodding in thanks, I sprint off to the ship and get on it just in time as it peels off the harbor.

* * *

 **4 years later**

 **(Quick A/N to fill you in on what has happened. The Chimera Arc has passed and Gon has met his father)**

I am 17 now, and lots has changed over the past 4 years.

I had begun to call myself Hoshi once more, not Eridanus nor H, but Hoshi, around 3 years ago. I've grown so much, coming from a little girl hiding and disguising herself from the world to a strong, empowered woman.

Why go by Hoshi, you may wonder? Why, it's to ensure my mother knows I am here. In the past 4 years I've dabbled in different Hunter categories, before finally creating my own. For the first year on my own I was a Crime Hunter, training under a man named Uto, a specialist with the power of creating ice. I left that field after cracking a terrorist code on accident, pushing me into the Terrorist Hunter category, where I was partnered with a man named Botabai Gigante for the first year. He was a kind man, despite his rough appearance, and I've grown to know him as a fatherly figure. When I revealed to him that I was a young girl, he trained me even harder for the world, encouraging me to keep my true identity revealed for the world so they'd grow to know me.

When I asked him why he trained me harder, he told me it was to have the world know who I am. After two years of that when I first turned 16, I left my training under him and helped with the Chimera Arc.

I soon met with Netero during the events before he met with King, and I explained to him my origins and of Spirea being my mother. Netero appeared frightened before calming himself, admitting that I seemed to have the capacity to become even more powerful then my mother. He swore to not tell anyone, but asked for me to promise to never become my mother.

I agreed, and he left, after explaining what my mother did, causing me to go into shock.

To clear my head, I went to nearby towns and cities of the forest, clearing out people and transporting them to other places on ship, mostly to Whale Island, which I knew would be safe from the Chimera Arc. I started placing people on surrounding islands by Whale Island, such as Dolphin and Shark Island, which protected the people from harms way.

I had become a Defense Hunter, and their goal is to protect and rescue people from harm's way and fight whenever necessary. It had become an amazing category, and Botabai had helped me make it official, since he was one of the 12 zodiacs. For the past year I had taken in a disciple by the name of Azalea, a meek woman who had only passed the previous year's Hunter Exam with the help of her brother. She learned how to create a chain and ball with her Emitter abilities, and went on to be a terrorist hunter, as she became impatient with the emotions of others.

And in two days time, I am to accept the First Star Hunter Award for producing my own field and helping others, mainly for my rescue of 10,000 individuals during the Chimera Arc.

I have not spoken to Leorio, Kurapika, Gon nor Killua during the time passed, which seemed to have almost elongated the Chimera Arc, or at least made it start later. The Chimera Arc lasted around a year or a year and a half during the manga, but it was almost delayed, as it started two years ago, not right after the Greed Island arc. But the newspaper said that the Greed Island game had been completed only a few months after I left the game, so that was strange.

After leaving the game, I had received only a small pay from my time in the game, since it had went uncompleted, and then headed to York New in pursuit of my mother, where I met Uto and began training. Rumors of my mother had died down once more, but I know I will run into her eventually.

The election for the New President is in 2 weeks time, and I have been asked to attend by Botabai to vote in, which I have agreed to do, but I am nervous to run into the others from my past. They won't visually recognize me, of course, but I am still nervous.

Oh well, it'll be one hell of an adventure, regardless of what the outcome is.


	7. Into x the x Mindscape

Smoothing down my skirt, I looked in the mirror at my pale reflection. I didn't look in mirrors too often, so when I did I made sure everything was in place. My long brown hair that faded to pink had grown curly this time after I shaved myself bald a couple years ago, and it fell at my waste, so I parted it down the middle and pulled back two chunks of hair from my face in semi-ponytails on top of my loose hair, which had become its usual style. The scarf I had used to wear had morphed itself into a sheer skirt that I usually put over black shorts, and it still twinkled with all the constellations to this day. I wore a dark blue shirt with off sleeves, exposing my pale shoulders dotted with freckles and the amulet around my collarbone. The bulky brown belt from years ago was still around my waist with various powders and potions in different links, but it fit better around my rounded hips, now.

I no longer looked like a pubescent boy, thank god. I had grown a curvy, muscular figure that I was quite proud of. On my feet I had plain black tennis shoes, alongside white socks with black stripes.

My phone dinged, as I pick it up.

 _'Star Rank'_ it read, as my mind blanked for a minute.

Shit!

I forgot that the acceptance of the damn Star Rank was today!

I quickly pulled off my belt and shoved the contents into a nice purse, and took off my shorts, shirt and the sheer scarf-skirt.

"You know what to do," I mumble, as the constellations on the skirt shift, elongating with the skirt as it grows longer and longer until it turns into a dark blue dress, constellations sewing and imprinting themselves into it (Wonder Woman blue dress). Pulling it on, I quickly pull my hair into a bun and grab the purse, before making my way out of the apartment.

My tennis shoes are hidden by the dress, anyway.

Some loose curl tendrils popped out of my bun as I sprinted up the stairs to the top of the building, causing a rush of wind to burst into my face. Tucking one behind my ear, I crack my shoulders by rolling them.

"Aquila, come forth!" I demand. "Please," I add as an afterthought as the dress' constellations shift to form Aquila as it peels off my cloak, transforming into a large, silvery eagle with feathers shimmering like diamonds and eyes like lightning itself.

"Hello again, pretty birdie," I coo, stroking its head, causing static to rub up and down my fingers. The bird nudges my hand with its beak, causing me to chuckle. Swinging my leg over the bird, I pull myself to sit on it as it flies towards Swaldani City.

After about 30 minutes I arrive, hopping off the bird as it returns back onto my dress. Adjusting my dress, I stride forward and enter the Hunter Headquarters building, heading towards the conference room. Knocking on the door, I hear a faint 'enter' as I enter the room.

The Twelve Zodiacs sat there, all looking at me as I felt my cheeks flush. Did I overdress for this event? Looking at Botabai, he gave me a curt nod as I sighed in relief. Hopefully that's a good nod.

"Hoshi, congratulations on your first star rank, you are the youngest Hunter ever to get the first Star," Cheadle informs, as I give a short nod of appreciation. "Thank you, Cheadle. I will work even harder now."

"Can we see your license?" Cheadle asks as I nod, reaching into my bag and passing forward the license I earned 4 years ago. Cheadle looked over it, before pulling out a stamper and burning a detailed star into the back. She passed it back towards me, as I looked at the star, feeling pride swell within my chest as I looked at the little star.

Isn't that ironic? A little star for a little star.

"This marks you as an official single-star member, good job."

I bow shortly once more, "Thank you." The room begins to clap, as my eyes fall over each of them in turn falling on Ging for a bit longer. How ironic that Ging was under Gon's nose all along as a Zodiac member, but it only made me pity Gon more.

However, I am not in a better situation.

At least Gon can publicly claim his father while I have to denounce my mother and hide her in the shadows. Hell, the only reason I told Netero that Spirea is my mother is because Netero was going to die the next day.

Making eye contact with Botabai, he gave me a slight smile, looking proud himself. As his disciple, this must have been a great moment for him.

With few more words, I left the room with a new ID and a significant pay raise. I went to a quick dinner, before heading to the library and logging onto a computer there. I own a a computer in each of my apartments (I have 4, one on each continent), but the wifi here is so speedy and I might not head back home. I don't have any pets nor animals, and all my plants need to be watered once every six months so I usually can do that or have the tenant of the apartment do that for me, so I'm always ready to go on the road. I got a few strange looks at my outfit as I sat by the computer, inputting my data to the Hunter database to see what I'd need to do.

I quickly exited out of the notification of a vote for the new Hunter association president, scrolling through the list of new quests. One of the biggest and dirtiest secrets that the Hunter Association carries is that it's actually an Underground association, though very few people know it. Though its members are dedicated to serving the people, most of our information comes from the dark web, mafias, etc. That's also how we know when a crime is about to happen, since there's a lot of spies in the organization. Scrolling through endless lists to see nothing come up, I bang my head on the computer.

Ugh, I guess I'll just stay in town for now. What is there interesting to do, though? All my friends I've made are hunters older than me, and they're most likely on quests right now. There was that one time I was hanging out with the Spiders, but that was due to an exchange of information.

The only real friends I had in this universe were Gon and Killua, but I don't know their exact location. The details of the anime and manga have long since faded from my memory, all I remember is the outcome of the election and the Dark Continent Arc beginning. Picking my head up from the keyboard, I scroll through some dark web sites until i find something interesting, causing a large chesire smirk to fall upon my face.

This was going to be bounds of fun.

* * *

"Champagne, mademoiselle?" I gush, smiling coyly at the woman before my, a silver platter on my hand lined to the brim with elegant stems of champagne. She nodded, not bothering to glance up at me from her phone, as I set one before her.

Ah, the Annual Museum Gala was to be a lot more interesting tonight. I had pinned my hair under a black wig and placed on large, bulky glasses that made my grey eyes seem smaller than they actually were, and dotted a fake mole under my chin. I wore a server's uniform, and my scarf had been morphed into a starry blue tie for the evening.

Yes, tonight I was undercover, and I would not claim to be a Hunter until I get caught.

 _If_ I get caught, that is. That's the fun thing about events like this, it's much more fun to remain undercover from sight.

Turning to the man next to me, I offer him a glass of champagne which he accepts, making a pun about how "this gala rocks," causing me to give a light chucklel though I have already heard the pun 4 times this night, and it is only 9:00.

The museum of Vegas Las had recently opened its doors to a new exhibition: the Pearl of Versailles. Supposedly from a faraway ocean, it is the largest pearl ever with a radius of 14 inches.

And I was going to steal it, of course.

Stealing away from the man, I stride towards the large hallway where the exhibit sat. I passed around more flutes of champagne, checking my pocketwatch as I rounded towards the pearl, gleaming under the dull lights.

9:14.

Drats, only 46 minutes left, I better make the best usage of my time. Glancing at another server in this hall, I strode toward them, plucking the last flute of champagne from my tray, spilling it almost unnoticeable on the path behind me, leaving only a small yellow sheen on the tan marble floor.

"I am going to restock, can you take this to the manager over there? I believe that is him," I state, pointing back at where I've come from, causing him to nod. "No problem, I will." He grasped it from my fingers, before striding towards the man in bountiful steps, only to trip and slip where I spilled the champagne, causing a large shatter of glass to erupt. The few people in the hall gasped, rushing over to him to help.

Sneaking by the velvet ropes of the pearl, I quickly reach into my pocket and pull out an inflatable white beach ball, and press a button on it as I take the pearl, placing it under my tray's cover. The beach ball sat in the original pearl's spot, slightly wrinkly, but a mere glance over it while distracted won't give anything away.

"I shall get towels immediately!" I declare, before running off, clicking my heels together as rollerblades appear. I glide past a man in a trenchcoat, giving him a courteous nod as I head towards the window of the 5th story.

Let's see how far I can go without using my scarf, alright?

I fling the tray top off, grabbing the pearl under my arm as I burst through the window, flying over the police cars that 'guarded' the event as they all look up at me in shock. Giving them a flirtatious wink, I flick open my pocket watch connected to my wrist as a knife emits from it. As I spiral down the palm tree outside the museum, I drag the knife behind me against the bark to slow me down, before pushing off the tree and sticking a perfect landing on top of a cop car. Pushing myself up again I jump 10 feet in the air, smoothly skating away from gunfire as soon as it entered my aura.

This was exhilarating!

Clicking my heels again as the wheels disappeared, I sprinted into a casino in the alleyway over, dodging between machines as I spotted a large open window, letting a slight breeze in. Smirking, I ran towards it and hopped out, swishing the curtain close behind me as I landed on the ledge of the building. Looking at my normal pocketwatch, I noted the time.

9:45.

Great, plenty of time to make it to the bridge from here; hopefully I won't cut the time too close. Suddenly, a bright light shone upon me, as I squinted up at the detective, clutching onto a megaphone with one hand and the helicopter with the other.

"Return the pearl now, I repeat, return the pearl now, and you may be exempted from prison! You are surrounded!" He screeches into the microphone as I sigh, pushing up the annoying fake glasses.

"Alright!" I shout, nodding as I hold the pearl forward, "Take it!"

As the detective pulls closer towards me and places his hand ontop of the pearl, I place my hand on top of his and the bottom of the pearl, a large smile on my face as I jump off the ledge of the building, swinging downward. As he drops me and the pearl in shock, hasty to pick himself up, I swing into an alleyway, a chesire smirk on my face.

Why does the police force usually not have nen users? This whole ordeal would be a lot more fun if so.

I put some nen in my feet as I sprinted away, heading to the Scarlet Bridge, as I jumped and clicked my heels, landing back on the ground with rollerblades as I coasted. Holding the pearl in front of me, I gently traced the faint, almost unnoticeable line on it, only visible with my nen. Unscrewing the pearl, a small, circular bomb lay inside, counting down from 59.

Oh! So I was definitely cutting it close!

Looking in front of me, the police sat there with the detective in the lead, all brandishing guns towards me. Smirking, I watched as they fired off bullets as I dodged them, until I had been corner to the rim of the bridge over the water. I held the pearl over the water, arching a brow as they pointed guns at me. Looking at the small bomb in my other hand, I saw it had gone down to 21.

Damn.

Tossing the fake pearl at them, they all rose their hands up to catch it as I glided past them, jumping up to the tower of the Scarlet Bridge, and I reeled my hand back at 5 seconds.

I'd like to take a moment to thank Biscuit for making me do all those damn jumps. Hurling my arm forward with nen behind it, the bomb soared through the air, finally exploding in a fiery way, like a grosser version of a firework. Smiling, I wiped away a bead of sweat as I was tackled with the force of 40 men.

Whoops.

* * *

"Whoops? Is that all you have to say for yourself?" The detective snarled, droplets of spit hitting me in the face.

"I'm sorry that you're butt-hurt that I figured out there was a literal _bomb_ in a museum, and you did not!" I shout back, banging my fist on the table. He pinched the bridge of his nose, inhaling deeply.

"You're an extraordinary athlete, I'll hand that to you. But leave the police business to _the police,_ little girl. You're lucky someone didn't get hurt," He huffs, as I roll my eyes, twisting my wrists as I snap the handcuffs, then reaching into my pocket and withdrawing my hunter ID.

"I'm higher up than, you, Detective. Single Star Hunter, Hoshi, pleasure," I stand up, looking at his shocked face.

"Why didn't you let us know you were a hunter earlier?!" He asks, now beginning to sweat from his pasty face.

"Didn't feel like it, this was a lot more fun, no?" I ask as he remained silent. Chuckling, I glanced away, putting my ID back in my pocket. "Don't worry, all of this information was already filed in the Hunter database earlier yesterday morning. No need to do paperwork."

The Detective pulls out his phone, clearly looking through records. "Hoshi, you've seemed to do this a lot."

"It's much easier if I go undercover, or much more amusing. Same thing," I wave my hand in an easy-going matter as I step towards the door, opening it for myself. "I'm sure none of you will mind if I grab myself a donut on the way out, no?"

He was too shocked to reply as I closed the door behind me, grabbing a glazed and a napkin on my way out of the station.

Yes, another case solved that will go towards the police publicly, but to me within the Hunter community. It's fine, I guess, since I was acknowledged by respectful Hunters, but my normal life is too bland by the way it is.

Logging onto my phone, I enter the Hunter app, scrolling through public chat rooms until I find the one I wanted: the one about Gon's condition. I leaned back into the train window as I glanced outside at the forest, momentarily meeting my eyes in the transparent reflection before looking away. I know I don't have the power to fix Gon's condition, but I want to see him.

Adjusting the stupid headscarf, which I haven't worn in this form for years, I breathed in through my nose, closing my eyes as I saw only pure black. I've been developing this technique for a while now, I only hope it can help Gon hang on for a bit longer.

After all, it seems my appearance has affected the anime time line to be slower. I don't know if he'll live due to this change.

Opening my eyes once more, I look at the request in the chat room.

 _"Experienced Curse Hunters, please help!_ " Posted by an anonymous figure, causing me to chuckle. It was most likely Killua or Leorio, someone with a big heart who isn't going to show it.

This was the only way I could be let in to see Gon, I suppose.

But for now, I have to go to this ridiculous vote for the Hunter Association.

When I entered, I sat next to a small, baldling creature I remembered was into music. However, I remained silent as Pariston lectured on and on about the Association and how he'd fix it, then Leorio almost caused me to laugh when he lectured Ging and socked him in the face. Ah, I wish I did that 2 weeks ago upon receiving my Single Star.

You know what? Leorio has it covered with the whole punching thing, I'll let it go for now. Smirking behind the scarf, I feel a pair of eyes bore into me, but when I turned around all I saw was a regular crowd of hunters.

* * *

"Our vote exceeded 95%, so for our fifth vote the top 16 people will be running," the Jellybean named Bean reads off his card, as I lounge back onto my sofa, glancing up at the TV. Oh, I had almost forgot that Leorio becomes a candidate. "I will now introduce the candidates in order of votes received."

The TV program announced the candidates as I took a sip of my hot chocolate, everything seems fine and normal-

"The 15th candidate is Hoshi, the youngest Single Star receiver in history due to the rescue of 10,000 individuals during the Chimera Ant Invasion and the protection of others during other times. She has not offered a public statement about the election, but has received many votes after her pictures appeared on the Hunter website 2 weeks ago." A picture of me appeared on screen, giving a peace-sign pose and a cheeky smile.

I spit out my hot chocolate back into the mug, choking up the last bit of droplets.

What the actual hell?! I never wanted to run! And are these perverts only voting for me because of my appearance?!

And that photo was from last year in my peace-sign phase! Agh!

Ugh! Whatever, I'll just promote Leorio or Cheadle to shift the votes away from Pariston. This will be a nuisance, but at least it's something to do.

* * *

"Hello, are you Leorio?" I ask, as a "Eh?" Sounds out from the tall man as they turn towards me, emitting a large gasp.

"Eridanus!" He shrieks, as I grins slightly under the scarf. I had bound my chest and deepened my voice for this encounter, transforming my usual skirt to a scarf to fit the occasion. It was of mass importance for me to speak with Leorio.

"Hello Leorio, I wish we could meet upon better occasions, but I have heard that Gon is in dire need of an exorcist," I cut to the chase as Leorio's face falls. "I see, are you one?"

"No, I'm afraid not, but I have a coping strategy I have been working on that can prolong Gon's life until he can get the care he needs. If he doesn't receive help soon, I fear it will not be enough," a slight frown comes onto my face, which was unnoticeable to Leorio.

Leorio arches a brow, leaning close.

"How can I be sure you are Eridanus? It's been four years, after all," he asks as I grin, crossing my arms. "I remember during the Hunter exams you whipped off your shirt because you thought it'd help you run faster."

"But it did!" He shouts, before composing himself by clearing his throat and pushing up his tie. "Alright, I see that you're clearly Eri. We can head to the hospital now, if you want."

"Sure," I nod back as we enter a private car that jets off towards the hospital. The car ride was filled with a silence as we both looked out the window, as I felt a bubble in my throat to speak.

"So-" I began, hoping to catch up as Leorio's phone began ringing. Leorio gave me an apologetic look before picking it up, conversing with a business-friendly tone with the person on the other line.

If I was correct, Leorio was now in his early twenties, though he still looks the same as he did 4 years ago. Some people never change, I suppose, but I'm glad Leorio still has retained his fiery temper. Leaning my head against the window, I glanced out it as cars zoomed past with flashing neon buildings behind them.

What a strange world we live in.

* * *

"This is Gon's room," Leorio says, pointing down a hallway at the last door as I shuddered, feeling the dark radiating Nen from where I stood. "Do...do you feel that, too?"

Leoio hesitated for a moment, before giving a tight nod. "It's been like this for a few weeks now when Gon released too much of his Nen while fighting. Eri, if your method doesn't work...please do not be disheartened, many have tried to help, but nothing's really worked."

"I understand, Leorio, but one must remain positive." I turned my chin up, determined to keep strong as I strode forward, opening the door to Gon's room. I shuddered as I saw dark steam roll off him in a dark form of Nen, bandaging the poor boy like a mummy. The machines hooked up to him slowly beeped, keeping him at a steady pace, but slow, nonetheless.

Sighing to myself, I sat down in the visitor's chair next to him, impressed in a permanent dent mark from constant visits. I let my aura flow to my scarf as it extended slightly, as I wrapped bunches of its cloth around Gon's hands, before placing my own hands on top of Gon's. Closing my eyes, I imagined myself flowing into his mind, like stars sharing the same sky, regardless of time of day.

Feeling a darkness caress my hands as it slowly dragged up my arms, I repressed the urge to shudder at its coolness, focusing on Gon. It soon reached my lips, forcing their way in as I gasped, opening my eyes to pure darkness. Looking around me, I noticed that I was in a black void, floating around like I was in water, but I could breathe fine. Exhaling, a puff of smoke exuded from my lips, as the sudden chillness took a toll. Suddenly, a floor of white marble appeared below me as I crashed onto the floor, forcing me to my knees.

Groaning, I pushed myself off the floor to a standing position, brushing off my hands. "Now, where is Gon?" I wonder aloud, turning around in the mind scape of Gon's current self. I always had expected it to be less dreary than this, coming from Gon, but I suppose his situation wasn't the best one to be judging for this lack of scenery.

So, I suppose I was to find Gon in his vast mind scape, which seems to be a bit of a problem. I mean, if he's not here to greet me at all that must mean the Nen curse must've really taken a toll on him for himself to retreat far into himself and alter the environment like this...

Looking around myself, all I could note in the environment was the lack of anything, really. I suppose I might have to do something to garner a reaction in Gon...

Pulling out my pocket watch, I looked at myself in its golden reflection, taking note of the headscarf. If I didn't seem to garner a reaction like Eridanus, maybe another form shall do?

The scarf seemed to melt over my head and down my body until it flourished into its cape form as I pulled up the mask and down the hood, revealing long brown hair with pink ends. "It is I," I loudly declare, "H."

The world seemed to pause for a moment, until the floor tilted at a 45 degree angle, forcing me to slide down into a black void, as I closed my eyes, preparing for impact as I splashed into a large pool of water. Swimming up to the surface, I spit out clear water that had gotten into my mouth as I swam to the brink of the water, pulling myself up from it. Looking around at the environment I was in now, all I saw were varying shades of dark grays and blacks, with a forest of light grey trees in what seemed to be half-a-mile from me.

"I suppose I'll need to follow the variations in colors to get to Gon, then," I mutter, wrenching my cloak free of water as I began walking towards the forest, before entering its depths.

Like any ominous and suspicious forest, it cast shadows that made me shiver, until I realized I was probably the only truly alive thing in this forest. Relaxing my hunched shoulders, I soon came to a fork in the path with a red arrow pointing one way and a black arrow pointing the opposite way.

"Hey, you." A light voiced called from behind me as I swiveled around, fists drawn as I faced a girl around my height. Her long red hair was unkept as it fell past her waist, and her large purple eyes looked me up and down suspiciously, with freckles dotted on her cheeks like a baby's mobile. She looked extremely normal, save for the fact her skin was greyish and she had a large, swiveling rat tail emitting from her backside. She was oddly familiar for some reason...

"What are you doing in Gon's mind scape?" She asks, as I cross my arms. "I'm here to help him, what are you doing?" I respond, as she puts her hands on her hips.

Now that I noticed it, her only features in color was the long red hair and her purple eyes.

"If you're here to help him, can you tell what I am? I do not understand why I am in a human, err, humanoid form." She replies, voice unusually calm. I felt ready to burst into fight at any moment, but I am afraid it'll hurt Gon if I do.

"Do you have any idea what you can be to Gon?" I ask, as she shakes her head. "I have been stuck in this forest for weeks now, and nothing has happened."

"Well, you can come with me for now, and we can see if we'll figure anything out." I put my hands on my hips, "Unless you wish to remain in this forest?"

"Not really," she admits, as I nod. "Good. What can I call you?" I ask, as a confused look comes onto her face. "I...I do not know. I shall come with you, then."

And then we walked off in the direction of the red arrow in hopes of finding a way to help Gon.

* * *

We soon drew out of the forest, wandering into a small desert, full of barren grey sand. I adjusted the scarf ever so, feeling as if I should be hot, even though I wasn't. Turning my head back, I saw that the girl was continuing to follow me, red hair flowing behind her as if it was a halo. She looked emotionless, possibly with a tinge of sadness in her drooped eyes. Turning back, I let my thoughts drift.

Why in the world was there another character in Gon's mind scape? Is she a past memory of something?

Looking up, I noticed a large, towering and spindly looking old house revolving around a large tree. Turning back to Kite, I point up at it. "I think we need to go in there."

She nods, crossing her arms. "Me too, let's go."

We entered the first room, which was larger than it had appeared on the outside. It looked like a normal boy's room, which I soon recognized as Gon's room from where I resided in it previously. It was completely devoid of color, though, save for splashes of red, purple and blue, now. I suppose the added blue means we're getting closer...

"Hey, the closet is a staircase," the girl calls to me, opening the closet door and revealing a spiral staircase leading upwards. Nodding at each other, we sprint up the staircase to the next room, finding papers upon papers in the room, messily thrown about.

"This is awfully scary," I mutter, forcing Nen into my eyes and seeing nothing suspicious. I put it away, as I stepped into the piles of papers that came up to my waste, wading through them. The ginger followed behind me, looking around the grey room.

Casting my gaze aside, I looked at one of the papers, and noticed they were each individual photographs. Picking one up, the image took into shape of a scarfed person stepping out of the shadows of an alleyway.

That was...me. This must've been from years ago when I first met Gon. Turning back around, I look at the ginger's shaking hands as she turns turns the paper around to face me, revealing a willowy, tall, thin man with flowing blanch white hair, crouching over the viewer, extending a spindly white hand.

Turning my view to the girl's face, my mouth forms an 'o' shape as tears trickled down her face, dripping down her chin and onto the photo as the white hair begins to tint red.

"I remember now," she whispers so quietly I had to strain my ears to hear. She uttered another sentence, before being sucked downward by the papers.

"No!" I shout, jumping up and reaching for her hand as I collapsed on top of the papers, barely missing it. I thrust my hand into the papers, looking for something, only to find nothing. Leaning back in defeat, I picked up another paper, holding the photo over my head as I looked at it. This time it was of the profile of the scarfed person, looking downward in excitement at a card in their hands.

My Hunter ID, merely a code of letters that didn't reveal my true name. Putting the paper down, I realized that all the photos we saw were unique to each person, as only the holder of the photo can see a memory unique to them and Gon. Standing back up, I firmly plant my feet on the paper, smushing it underneath my as I look up at the ceiling, noticing a trap door.

Bingo.

Jumping up on my tip toes, I pry my fingers into the wood and yank downwards, allowing a ladder to slide down. Climbing up, I find myself in a dark room, covered in an itchy floor. Putting my hand down to touch it, my eyes widened.

This isn't flooring...

 _This is hair._

Picking up a thick, glossy lock of hair, I hold it in my hands, tugging to the right. There was no tension in that direction. Tugging in the opposite direction, I noted there was slight tension.

There it is! Grasping the hair firmly in my hands, I walk forward into the dark, using the hair as my anchor. The hair that once was on the bottom of my feet soon rose to my waist, then to my shoulders.

How much hair does this person have? I blindly stumble forward, attempting to keep hold on the hair, as it rises past my head.

Holding my breath, I push myself through the hairy jungle, pulling away thick locks of hair with my extended arms. Reaching out a hand to shift aside the next lock of hair, my eyes widen.

It touched nothing.

Rushing through quickly, my eyes widened. Inside this massively hairy jungle, there sat a teenage boy. He looked around 16 or 17, now, with his black-green hair flowing in a wave behind him, which soon twistered him into a cocoon. He sat there with his eyes closed in a criss-cross sitting position, breathing slowly with his hands on his lap. His green shirt and white shorts had long been tattered, revealing rippling muscle. Stepping forward towards Gon, I felt tears well up in my eyes.

How did I miss this? Miss everything?

How could I have not protected them when I had the chance?

Kneeling in front of him, I reach forward, cupping his face softly.

"Gon," I whisper. "Wake up."

He continued to sit there as I felt my brows crinkle. "Gon, please, wake up. I'm here, now."

He sat there, face resting peacefully; untouched by the burdens of time in this hairy cocoon.

"Gon! Wake up this instant!" I felt my voice begin to rise as desperation creeped up the back of my throat, threatening me to let out a sob.

"Gon!"

Nothing.

I did nothing to help. Nothing helped.

I can't even find my own mother. I left my father alone, all those years ago. I can't even help a boy when he's right in front of me.

I bring my hand away from his face, cupping my own face now as I bend over, beginning to sob.

Why would I ever do this?! I got pulled away from my life! My home!

My own future! And all for nothing, since I can't even do anything right in this universe! I can't protect what's dearest to me, so what's even the point?!

A light touch pat the top of my head as I opened my eyes. Glancing up, not daring to move, I look at where Gon's hands were.

One of them had moved to the top of my head. Craning my neck up, I feel my jaw drop as I see Gon's dulled-down brown eyes were looking at me.

Regardless, they were open.

"Don't cry," he croaks out, voice hoarse as he gives me a faint smile. "You should be happy."

"Gon..." I trail off, feeling my tears of sorrow turn to one of happiness as I quickly wrapped my arms around him. "You're okay! Oh my gods!"

He paused, before hugging me back. "It's good to see you again, H," he whispers into my ear. I pull from the hug, seeing his brown eyes had brightened a bit more.

"Can you not escape?" I ask, as he frowns lightly.

"I can't. I've been in this room for a while now," he muses as I chuckle.

"This isn't any room, the room's made from your hair."

His eyes widen as he turns around, hair swiveling out of his view. "What? Where is it?"

I laugh at his innocent actions, patting him on the head. "I had to climb through it to get here."

"Here? Where is that? York New?" He asks, cocking his head.

"We're in your mind," I respond, crossing my arms. "You're in a coma right now. You released too much Nen, knocking you into this state."

"What?" He asks, brows furrowing. "I can't believe that this happened..."

"Don't worry," I hush, lightly patting his hand. "Within a few weeks, you'll be pulled from the coma."

"Can't you pull me out of the coma right now?" He asks as I downcast my gaze. "I can't. Something else will. But," I look up at him, giving him a close-eyed smile, "I can help you recover a bit. Since you're conscious is in a horrendous state right now, it'll be tricky, but I think you won't be forced into a hair-cocoon."

"What-"

Flipping open my pocket watch as a sword emerges, I rise from where I sit.

"Don't move."

"What?" Gon asks, as I quickly grab a clump of his hair and chop it clean off. The sword retracts back to the pocket watch as tufts of hair begin to fall from the top of the cocoon.

This can't be good.

"Gon! Get up!" I shout, as he stands up wobbily, more hair falling. "The hair doesn't have an energy source, so it's going to collapse!"

We both begin running through the hair maze, following the path I had created upon my entrance. Reaching backwards, I grab Gon's hand to ensure he's following behind.

Hair obscured our vision as we tumbled forward, falling down the ladder I had entered through previously to get here. We safely land on a pile of white pieces of paper, as we look at each other.

"Well, that was something," I laugh out as he chuckles, rubbing the messily chopped hair on his head.

"Totally," he laughs out, looking at the white papers. "What are these?"

"I suppose it's our first interaction," I respond, as he holds up a piece of paper. On it appears a younger me standing next to Bisky, as my eyes widen.

Does this mean that he still doesn't know, although my Eridanus appearance was shown on white? Does it rely on perspective, then?

"Hey! That's when we first met," he smiles as I awkwardly nod.

"Gon," I start, as he turns his bright brown orbs towards me. "Yes?"

"I've got to return to the real world now," I inform. "I don't know if I'll have the strength to stay in here much longer."

His smile falters for a moment, before it appears again. "I understand. Will we see each other again out there?"

I look aside for a brief moment, giving him a nod. "Yeah, let's."

"Good," he smiles out, before wrapping his long arms around me. "It was good to see you again, H!"

"You too, Gon," I lower my eyelids, disconnecting myself from his mindscape. "Good bye."

And I disappeared from his arms, tumbling into a void of blackness. I open my eyes to find myself in the hospital room, cloak wrapped around Gon's hands. Looking at the visitor's chair on the opposite side, Leorio sat there, tapping his foot anxiously.

"How long was I out?" I ask, weakly standing up. Leorio immediately stood up, walking over to me.

"About 10 hours or so, it's dark out, now." Leorio held out a hand which I graciously held onto.

"You should sit down-"

"I just need some water and a good night's sleep, don't worry." I wave off with my other hand as I turn to look at Gon. Leorio looks back with me, giving a smile.

"His aura isn't dark and thick anymore, it's at a faded white glow. That's way better than before. And, his heart rate is also at a steady pace for the state he's in."

"But, he's still in a coma?" I ask as Leorio nods.

"At least you prolonged his life-"

"I wish I could've done more." I felt myself frowning as I yank my hand out of Leorio's. "Is there a nearby hotel I can go to?"

"We have a spare hospital room next door," Leorio offers as I nod, wobbling over to the room next over. I enter, looking around at the generic blandness of the room. Leaning onto the hospital bed, I ease into the sheets, passing out the moment my head hit the pillow.

* * *

"Hoshi! What is your platform on the election for Chairman?" the interviewer asks as I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear.

"I believe that the Chairman in charge should be well-versed as a Hunter, and wish to benefit the people and the Association, regardless of opinion. We're an organization formed to benefit the world, not just for personal gain."

"What's _your_ platform-"

"That is my platform. And that is all." I walk off stage, allowing the next person in line to talk about why they wish to be the next Chairman. I could care less, for goodness sake, yet I was somehow still roped into this mess.

Based off my apatheticness due to the whole voting process, I knew I wouldn't place higher than 6th. Pariston would probably get the highest amount of votes, which infuriates me. He is more apathetic than I, but only wishes to win to make the Association his own personal playground.

Leaving the building, I hop into a taxi as they drive to my apartment building. I head up the elevator to my own penthouse, making a quick lunch as I scroll through my phone, looking for quests.

Nothing interesting. It seems as if crime or new quests put themselves on pause when this election mucked about. Tossing the pizza in the oven to bake, I pull up my phones, eyes flitting over the symbols. It felt like just the other day I was learning how to read these characters among my friends, I can't believe that things have changed so much since then. Plopping down on the couch, I look out the large window that overlooked the town. All the little people who lived there, so involved in their own story that they didn't realize something drastic may crumple their perfect town.

I pity them, yet envy them. To be in a state of complete innocence is a state I had pulled from my grasp at a young age.

My existence is just to be here, in this world that's located somewhere on the outskirts of my old universe; and once I find my mother I'll have to find a way to transport between both worlds.

For once I figure out how I do, I'm bringing my father here.


	8. We x Meet x Again

The next morning, I left quickly in a cab I hailed at dawn. While I cared for my friends, it'd be better to be distant. I entered the cab, leaning my head against the window of the car. As we exited on the path, we passed a pitch black car with tinted windows. It suddenly screeched to a stop, and I look back at it as a figure steps out.

Sharpened, cat like blue eyes stared at the back of the cab. White, porcelain skin stretched over sharp features, a fading scar on his left cheekbone. Spiky white hair rose as electricity cackled around them.

"Speed up!" I order, as the cab picks up speed. Nervously, I look back at the boy, who forms his hand into a ball.

"Swerve now!" I order, as the cab swerves off road when Killua releases the ball of electricty our way. We narrowly avoid it, only to run into a tree.

"Shit!" The driver swears, and I shake my head, reaching into my bag and withdrawing a checkbook. Quickly flipping through pre-written checks I find a check for 100,000 jenny, passing it to him.

"I'm sorry for the damages, I hope this is enough," I offer as his eyes widen. Exiting the car, I turn and face Killua, cloak over my face.

"Eri..." he curses, crossing his arms.

"It's certainly been a while," I quip as he sarcastically laughs. "You can say that...H."

He shoots out a branch of electricity, but I side step it, flicking little balls of Lyra Launchers at him. He blocks them off with a shield of electricity, and I laugh.

"When did you figure that out?" I ask as he runs at me, electricity crackling in his hands. I duck a side punch, kneeing him in the gut as he stumbles back a bit.

"After you left the island, it felt eerily similar to what you did before," he responds, and I grin. "Well, that's nice to know that someone figured it out. Does Gon know?"

"No," he answers, standing up straight, showing off how tall he was now. "I'm the only one. Now, why are you here?"

"I was just leaving, don't worry," I wave off with a yawn. "Except you made my driver crash the car."

"It wasn't my fault he swerved off road-"

"You would've short-circuited the car!" I argue back, before sighing. "Regardless, I was here previously to help Gon with the curse."

Killua inhales sharply. "And?"

"And, I could relieve some of the tension on his mind, but he's still in a coma..." I sigh in disappointment. "I wish I could've done more."

"Are you a curse breaker now?" He asks as I shake my head. "I wanted to try something out. If I refine it, I could possibly free him, but I don't know how much time it'd take..."

A girl pokes her head out of the car. She had long, inky black hair and a pair of stunning blue eyes. Beads trailed strands of her hair, while a headband with different faces was around her forehead.

Alluka.

"Hello," I wave at her, as she shyly stood behind her older brother.

"Killua, who are they?" she mutters into Killua's shirt.

"This is Eridanus," Killua informs as I give a wave. "Just call me Eri. What's your name?"

"Alluka," Killua answers for her, and I give a nod. "Well, I see you're busy, so I should be off-" I turn around.

"Not so fast," Killua cuts off, as I feel electricity wrap around my body. Turning my head back to him, I glare, trying to break the bonds as he chuckles.

"Most people would be knocked out by those," he informs as I laugh dryly, feeling the electricity rub like sandpaper against my cloak. "You know how I am, Killua."

"I might as well remove your mask..." he states, walking closer as I roll my eyes. "And I might as well headbutt you if you get too close. I have a private life I'd like to keep, and you know that."

He holds his hands up defensively. "Fine, fine, but we're going to have a little chat later." He picks me up, throwing me over his shoulder. I wiggle against him, but I can't do anything. Alluka trails next to him, and I look over at her.

"Sorry if this gives you a bad image of me, I'm not a bad guy," I joke as Killua scoffs. "They're not a villain, but they definitely have commitment issues."

Killua carries me into the building, sitting me down in a chair. "You're not to move, you hear?" He asks, as two butlers enter the building. It's been so long since I watched the series, I couldn't remember their names. The two butlers follow Killua and Alluka down the hall, to wear Gon would be healed.

His fragile, withered skin would return to a normal being. Closing my eyes, I relax. Suddenly, a surge of power erupted through the building. Snapping open my eyes, I knew that Gon was being healed. The bonds evaporate, and I begin running, turning my back as I burst through the doors. Quickly summoning a dragon from my cloak, I fly off, willing it to stay together under the pressure of the energy.

I fly for about 10 miles, before I land at a train station. Quickly, I pay my wares, getting on the train. It sped off to York New quickly, and I felt relieved. Last night, Leorio went back to York New for the afternoon's election. I remembered one detail about the election.

There was exactly 700 members of the Hunter Association and all attended the final election. While 675 were in the crowd, 25 were at the separate polling booths around the country. I accounted for the hunters already in the area, and I discovered that only 2 were in the York New area who didn't go to the main poll.

Some old guy and Spirea Woodruff. While she is a _cruel_ and _horrible_ woman, they can't revoke her license.

It's time for me to say 'hello' again to mother dearest.


End file.
